Geschatte leestijd: 3 minutenFor several years now, sweet potatoes have been on the menu for athletes. Nowadays, almost every health-conscious person is familiar with sweet potatoes as a nutritious alternative to the run-of-the-mill potato, especially now that even the large blue supermarket chain promotes them with pride. But why? There’s a halo of healthiness around the cheerful orange potatoes, but what’s the truth behind it?
Table of Contents
- Glycemic index
- What exactly are you eating?
- Difference between sweet potato and regular potato
- Color is good
- Conclusion
Glycemic Index
Sweet potatoes are often chosen for their low glycemic index, which is the rate at which the sugars in the product are absorbed into the blood. Unlike some ‘regular’ potatoes, this is low, making them often seen as a healthier alternative.
Health is, in any case, a difficult concept to explain and argue. What is healthy for one person may not be a wise choice for another. In many cases, a sweet potato can be a good alternative to a regular potato, but not always.
What Exactly Are You Eating?
For both regular and sweet potatoes, you’re consuming a product that grows as a nutrient storage source for a plant, whether domesticated and improved by farmers or not. Both are rich in carbohydrates, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You need carbohydrates, and if you’re active and lean, you need them even more than if you’re sedentary.
Making a comparison between regular and sweet potatoes is not such a wise plan (I wonder why I’m writing this article) because the differences are very small, and you don’t eat both products separately.
Moreover, the best ways to prepare both are boiling or steaming, as opposed to frying, baking, or grilling, which do not remove moisture. This prevents the amount of carbohydrates per 100 grams of product from increasing.
Difference Between Sweet Potato and Regular Potato
The differences in nutrients between the two types of potatoes are not very large. Depending on the source you use, a regular potato may be more carb-rich than a sweet potato, but that depends on how you prepare the products and what you define as a sweet potato and which regular potato you choose for comparison.
That’s exactly the difficulty: different cooking methods change the composition (and glycemic load and glycemic index) of the potatoes.
So what should you compare?
Moreover, both regular potatoes and sweet potatoes are almost never eaten without another product. Both are often part of a meal with something else. Sweet potatoes are often used in baked goods, and Sweet Potato Pie is a concept in the United States. But also in the Netherlands, sweet potato is increasingly becoming a part of a sweet baked product. This makes sense, given the relatively large amount of sugars in sweet potatoes.
Color is Good
A final small tip. As with most colored foods (and I’m not talking about wine gums, but green, red, purple, yellow vegetables), sweet potatoes also contain many different types of vitamins and minerals. In a diet that lacks vitamins and minerals, sweet potato would therefore be a wise choice. But then, almost any vegetable or fruit product would be a good choice.
Regular potatoes also contain a lot of vitamins and minerals, but here the sweet potato wins.
Conclusion
Both regular and sweet potatoes are, to a limited extent, a sensible choice for almost any diet, as are most unprocessed foods. The hype around sweet potatoes is slightly exaggerated. It is not a superfood, and it is not a better alternative than our trusted old Dutch potato.
Use both products in your diet so that you take in a variety of nutrients. Consider how you prepare the product (preferably boil or steam, and not often grill or bake) and ensure that you consume potatoes with other products like lean protein sources and healthy fats.
Sweet potatoes are,
for those who want to hear it, healthy but not a miracle cure. And the same goes for regular potatoes.
References
- glycemicindex.com/about.php
- precisionnutrition.com/regular-vs-sweet-potatoes
- iamafoodie.nl/zoete-aardappel/
- health.clevelandclinic.org/2013/03/white-potatoes-vs-sweet-potatoes-which-is-healthier/
