Sweet potatoes are the One of the most nutritious foods on the traditional menu
These orange-skinned root vegetables offer a host of health benefits especially when cooked without the unnecessary sugar and marshmallows
1. High nutritional value
A 7-ounce (1 cup) serving of sweet potatoes contains 65% of the minimum necessary daily amount of Vitamin C. Sweet potatoes are also high in calcium, folate, potassium and beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is an antioxidant which converts to Vitamin A in the body: one serving of sweet potatoes can provide you with as much as 700% of the US RDA for Vitamin A. The Center for Science in the Public Interest rates sweet potatoes as the number one most nutritious vegetable because they such are so nutritionally rich.
2. Accessing sweet potatoes' nutritional benefits is easy
To gain the maximum health benefits from eating sweet potatoes, avoid discarding their skins -- much of their healing potential resides in this portion of the tubers. Also, following the common dieters' fallacy of avoiding all fats reduces your ability to access sweet potatoes' benefits: beta-carotene absorbs more thoroughly into the body when consumed with a small amount of fat. Recent research seems to indicate that steaming or boiling sweet potatoes rather than roasting them helps preserve their low glycemic index.
