Recipes For Longevity - Part 5 - Miraculous Sweet Potato

Recipes For Longevity - Part 5 - Miraculous Sweet Potato
April 13, 2008 by em
Diabetesdietdialogue.com

“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information!” (TM)
Ever since Science In The Public Interest (CSPI) named sweet potatoes as the most nutritious vegetable decades ago, I have included these complex carbohydrates in my diabetes diet plan. They are one of the oldest vegetables consumed by humans and have been used for food in Peru for more than 10,000 years. Yes, sweet potatoes are a wonderful source of natural sweetness, which can be used by diabetics in myriad ways to help us when we want no added sugars. And, these roots are bursting with vitamins, minerals, unique root proteins and fiber, too. So, is your problem that you need better recipes than those tired, sugar-laden “yams” at Thanksgiving? Well, you can have lots more choice now about how to use this natural treat! Let’s get started!

Sweet potatoes scored a whopping 184 on the vegetable nutrition scale at CSPI and that’s 100 points beyond the second highest vegetable! Simple sweet potatoes are a nutritional powerhouse that you need in your arsenal, and just about everyone loves them; they are easy for children and elders to eat when every “bite” counts for small appetites but big nutrition needs.

One medium sweet potato is very filling, and helps produce satiety for only 130 calories and contains huge amounts of beta-carotene Vitamin A for eye health and wound healing (both important for diabetics) and for a healthy immune system, as well as folate (an important B vitamin needed for stress), Vitamin C, Vitamin E, potassium, protein (2.5gm), carbohydrates (32 - 4 = 28gm) and fiber (4 gm).

There is more fiber in one medium sweet potato than in a bowl of oatmeal (which is a gluten grain, and is therefore a possible food allergy source). You need fiber to act like a broom to push your food through your digestive system and scour intestinal walls well enough to keep them clean so you can absorb your food. Only fiber does this job.

There are 2 kinds of vegetable fibers in food: soluble and insoluble. The insoluble ones act as brooms as just described, and the soluble fibers help you to keep your digestive system moist and moving by absorbing and retaining natural moisture from what you eat and the water you drink. Therefore elimination is easier. Fiber slows down the digestion of a meal and therefore, for diabetics, it means that you produce blood sugars at a more even pace, without spikes.

The potassium in sweet potatoes helps to protect you from heart disease and stroke, as well as giving healthy nerve function (something important to diabetics at risk for neuropathy). And, as sweet potatoes are one of the most pH alkaline foods known, they will aid your need to alkalize your whole body and prevent the junk-food, wrong-food and metabolic ACID sources from killing you or robbing your Health.

The folate and B6 (both are B vitamins) in sweet potatoes are an essential part of a necessary-for-everyone program to reduce homocysteine levels in your body, as the inflammation from homocysteine production is what damages your arteries (causing cardiovascular diease) and weakening other vital tissues.

The orange-colored beta carotene is a natural anti-inflammatory and a powerful anti-oxidant which is protective against breast, prostate and cervical cancers, as well as inhibiting the artery damage from oxidized cholesterol (without this help, arterial plaque formation from oxidized cholesterol closes-off arteries). And, beta carotene has been proven to aid memory retaining abilities in elders.

There are more than 400 different varieties of sweet potatoes, which are members of the morning-glory botanical family and they are different from true yams. Sweet potatoes may be varied in shape and color, so be sure to ask your produce manager. They may be white, orange, red, yellow or purple and may be shaped like a rounded potato or be tapered at the ends.

Columbus brought the native American sweet potatoes to Europe and the Portuguese explorers took it to Africa, Asia and India. Africa already had true yams as a foundational food. China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, India and Uganda produce most of the world’s sweet potatoes, so you may want to find out where yours are grown if you have concerns about eating foreign-produced food.

Also avoid any which have been kept in your market’s cold section, as this alters their chemistry.

Organic sweet potatoes enable you to consume the skin as well, and it contains a lot of fiber.

The flesh of sweet potatoes will darken upon contact with the air, so you should cook them immediately after cutting them. If this is not possible, then to prevent oxidation, you must keep them in a bowl of water where they are covered completely, until you are ready to cook them.

NOTE: Oxalates are naturally-occuring substances in plants, animals and humans, but if you suffer from untreated kidney disease, you need to pay attention to the amounts of oxalates you ingest. Sweet potatoes, spinach, rhubarb and some other foods are oxalate sources of varying strengths, so consult your physician if you need to.

Now, on to the recipes! We’ll start with snacks, then on to soups, sauces, main dish, salad, beverage and dessert. Amazing, isn’t it.

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http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com/2008/04/13/recipes-for-longevity-part-5-miraculous-sweet-potato/