Sweet Potatoes

Food of the Week . . . Sweet Potatoes from World's Healthiest Foods

Comment: Sweet potatoes are an excellent children's food because they can be made extra sweet. Try baking sweet potatoes and using a little brown sugar. Kids need these kinds of foods and will eat them if they see mom and dad eating them.

Sweet Potatoes are in the peak of their season and are our food of the week. Did you know that, unlike other starchy vegetables, sweet potatoes are classified as an anti-diabetic food? Recent studies have shown that sweet potatoes help stabilize blood sugar levels and lower insulin resistance, a problem caused by cells not responding to the presence of insulin, which then prevents the transport of sugars from the blood into the cells. Some of sweet potatoes' anti-diabetic properties are believed to come from their high concentration of carotenoids such as beta carotene (the redder varieties also contain lycopene), which, along with their vitamin A and vitamin C, act as powerful antioxidants to help combat free radical activity that would otherwise damage cells and cell membranes. Sweet potatoes also contain unique root storage proteins with potent antioxidant activity. These proteins, along with sweet potatoes high content of carotenoids and vitamin C, may also make them helpful in reducing inflammation, such as that involved in con! ! ditions like asthma, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Read More ...