Thursday, October 7, 2010

Health Benefits of a Sweet Potatoe!

We have been incorporating organic foods into our diet on a daily basis now. One of the foods that we eat regularly for dinner is a Potato. Wednesdays, are our Potato day for dinner. We either make regular baked fries, baked in olive oil, or sweet potato fries, baked in olive oil. They are yummy! So since today is my day for increasing my knowledge, I decided to do a little research on the health benefits of a sweet potato. So glad I did! Did you know they are high in antioxidants? They are full of vitamin A, Vitamin C, manganese, potassium, copper, fiber, B6 and iron!
They say if you smoke or you live with someone who smokes you should fill up on sweet potatoes.
Apparently smoking can cause a vitamin A deficiency, and sweet potatoes will help keep that balanced better.
Interesting huh! I love sweet potatoes and now I love them even more!
They originated from Central America, and have been found in Peruvian caves.
The only thing I could find that was negative about them is the oxalates in them. They discovered the oxalates will crystallize when they become to concentrated with body fluids, and that can cause health problems such as causing the body to leach calcium.
With what I have learned with from my herbal class, most starches (especially refined) cause this to happen. They said that in studies it wasn't a lot though, and other health benefits outweighed this problem.

So go eat lots of sweet potatoes! :)

I will be working on my other Green day things to today!

Hope you have a happy healthy day!