Sweet Potato or Yam?

Actual sweet potatoes on the left, African yams on the right.
Sweets or Yams? Most of us think that the dryer, lighter fleshed tuber is a sweet potato, while the orange fleshed variety is a yam. But actually, both are sweet potatoes, botanically. This is important to know, because the two; yams vs. sweet potatoes have distinctly different nutritional benefits. The tubers we normally see in the grocery store or farmers markets here in the US are almost always Sweets. Often grocers refer to the light skinned ones as Sweets, and the orange fleshed ones, in the image at left, as yams. True yams are grown in Africa as a staple, and are rarely seen in grocery stores domestically. (For comparison, see the image above of the African yam. The true yam is rough skinned, and can grow to an astounding 150 pounds. Sweets are smooth skinned and certainly aren't known for rivaling livestock in weigh-ins. All Sweets, whether light fleshed or orange fleshed, are morning glory relatives. Though different in colors, the sweets share similar nutritional value and health benefits because they are all genetically similar. Though shockingly low-calorie considering their filling attributes, the sweet potato has a reputation among health food lovers as being among the most densely nutritious veggie available.

Sweet potatoes are packed with vitamin A; one medium sized tuber has nearly eight times an adult's needs. Additionally, the sweet contains considerable amounts of anti-inflammatory compounds which can be very important to people with IBS, arthritis, gout and other inflammation-related diseases and the tuber also has a very low glycemic index which is thought to be a benefit for those dealing with diabetes.

If they weren't so darn good, maybe we could see not adding them to our diets on a regular basis, but happily, these gems are quite tasty, and deserve to be grown and served more frequently than during the winter holidays!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Glamping in SoCal's Wine Country Updated on November 29, 2023 There's nothing quite like sleeping under canvas, as many of us fondly remember from our scouting days. Fast forward a couple decades, and spending a half day gathering gear and filling ice chests while juggling kids, work commitments and charcoal isn't as idyllic as we remember. Years ago, when news of MaryJane Butler's Idaho canvas wall tent farm burst onto the scene in the 1990's, the concept of living a fancier, more fluffy version of her youthful account of sorting herself out in much needed isolation in a tent in the northern woods, resonated with many of us. Yes, we wanted to experience that, but with down comforters, WIFI and running water. Many of us are inspired by the pioneering spirit, but prefer our inspiration in small doses. MaryJane's Farm was the first glamping destination to offer a gentler version of her survivalist adventures, and travelers flocked to Moscow, Idaho to experience he
Read more

Thanks, Monsanto!

Not that GMO's are anything to laugh about, but appealing to reason hasn't affected much change, so here's a link to a cynical video spoofing Monsanto. Here's the thing;  each year the GMO issue becomes more oppressive to those that passionately choose to farm without GMO's as well as to those that would choose to dine without GMO's...if their food was labeled in such a way that they'd have a choice. Even so called healthy food sources like WholeFoods have recently acknowledged that many of their store products contain GMO's. But sometime, you know...in the future...they'll get right on that. click here
Read more

Harvest Shot April 8-9 2014

Image
Harvest shot for this week. We lost much of our early mulberry crop to unseasonably windy nights. Just such a disappointment to see so much of our beautiful fruit on the ground. Squeaked by with very small portions for all Large Shares this week from our earliest trees. We do have half an acre of later fruit coming in, and look forward to a less meager provisions.
Read more