Benefits of Eating Sweet Potato
Most people have eaten sweet potatoes before, and most people loved it. Sweet potatoes are sweet/delicious (just like the name implies) and they are very healthy too. In fact, they have one of the most unique food profiles you can ever think of. They are powerful enough to help in the fight against health complications.
Many of the health problems we have today can be a thing of the past if you can eat right more often than before. It is a sad thing that processed “easy-to-make foods” are all over the place. They may take just 5 minutes to prepare, but they are low key sucking the life out of you.
Come to think of it, sweet potatoes are one of the organic foods that are very easy to make, plus, they are very healthy.
Here are 10 top health benefits of consuming sweet potatoes:
1. Sweet Potatoes Can Boost Your General Well Being
Sweet potatoes have a lot of compounds that make them viable health enhancement foods. Taking them regularly will help to boost your immunity and give you a better chance to enjoy a sickness-free life. This will sound sort of unbelievable, but that truth still remains that you’re what you eat.
Let food be thy medicine, and medicine Be thy food
– Hippocrates
Eating healthy foods like potatoes will take your immunity against diseases to a whole new level. It does not matter if you’re in your teenagehood or in your 90’s, the effects still remain the same. But you don’t want to wait till you’re 90 to eat healthily, do you? That is if your health doesn’t fail you before then.
2. Sweet Potatoes Make You Brainy
Okay, not “brainy” per se, but sweet potatoes are great for your brain. When your brain is in good condition, you can show a high level of intellectualism and natural intelligence.
Studies have shown that potatoes contain compounds known as anthocyanin which have memory enhancing properties. Amongst other things, this compound is believed to enhance your memory if you consume them regularly.
Other compounds found in sweet potatoes that are good for the brain are manganese and choline. Manganese helps the brain to receive and move impulses through your body faster, while choline is an essential nutrient for brain growth and development.
3. Sweet Potatoes Can Boost Your Fertility
If you have a history of fertility issues in your family lineage, it will do you and your children well if you feed them potatoes right from a very tender age. You don’t get to find out if you have fertility issues until at a more later adult age. Adjusting your meal at that time will definitely improve your reproductive health, but it cannot compare to having eaten fertility friendly diet right from when you were a kid.
Sweet potatoes are a fantastic source of vitamin A. Vitamin A is one of the nutrients that is essential for a healthy reproductive system. In addition to vitamin A, sweet potatoes offer a rich supply of iron, which is great for fertility too.
4. Sweet Potatoes Have Anti-inflammatory Effects
What is inflammation, and how does it affect your health?
Inflammation is the body’s way of signaling to the immune system to heal and repair damaged tissues in the body and to form a defense against foreign invaders that may want to break down one’s health. It’s not a bad thing in this sense, right?
Now, let’s look at it from another more serious angle. Inflammation may be a vital part of the immune system, but it can go on for too long and it can occur in places where it is not needed.
When this happens, and nothing is done to put it in check, then your body will have no other option but to break down after a while. Breakdown in this sense also stands for heart disease, stroke, autoimmune disorders, weight disorders, digestive disorder, mental instability, and cancer.
If you don’t want any of these scary diseases to come to you, then you have to pay attention to your body by eating anti-inflammatory foods like potatoes. Don’t worry, it will not tamper with the normal inflammation in your body, just the abnormal ones.
5. Sweet Potatoes Fights Against Stress and Anxiety
Magnesium is one of the contents of sweet potatoes, and they are very effective in fighting stress and anxiety.
Here’s how it works.
When you’re stressed out, or when you’re anxious, your nervous system instructs your body to release stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These stress hormones result in physiological changes to help you cope with the situation in ways that are naturally harmful to your body. Your respiratory system, immune system, and skeletal system will be adversely affected, to mention but a few.
To avoid all of that, you can eat foods that are rich in magnesium to help calm the brain down. A high level of magnesium in your body is what it takes to stop the stress hormones from firing long after they have served their purpose.
6. Sweet Potatoes Can Help to Protect Your Eyes
The main reason carrots are good for the eyes is because they are rich in carotenoids. Well, carrots are not the only great source of carotenoids, sweet potatoes are loaded with them too.
There are over 600 types of carotenoids, and sweet potatoes have got some of the most powerful of them all. Alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin are some of the top-notch carotenoids there is and they are found in sweet potatoes.
7. Sweet Potatoes Can Help To Fight Cancer
Just in case you don’t know, you can eat sweet potatoes with their skin intact, and your health will thank you for it. No, it doesn’t taste bad, plus, it contains anti-cancer properties.
According to research, sweet potatoes contain “Sporamin”; a compound said to be very effective in the treatment of several disease types, including cancer. Taking a lot of sweet potatoes can prevent the occurrence of cancer. It can also help with the treatment of existing cancer cells.
8. Sweet Potatoes Help To Stabilize Blood Sugar
Sweet potatoes are sweet, not just to the taste but also in your blood sugar levels. They may be sweet, but that does not mean it will increase your blood sugar level. Taking a lot of sweet potatoes helps to stabilize your blood sugar level.
According to a study, a number of people who have type 2 diabetes were treated with “Caiapo”, an extract from white sweet potatoes. They were given 4 grams of Caiapo on a daily basis for 12 weeks, and the result was great. Basically, their blood sugar levels were stabilized.
9. Sweet Potatoes Promotes Healthy Digestive System
If you have a digestive related problem like bloating and constipation, it’s probably because you don’t eat enough fibers. Sweet potatoes contain a significantly high amount of fibers which are great for promoting digestive health in both adults and kids.
Do you know that many of the laxatives used in modern medicines today are made from fibers such as the ones contained in sweet potatoes? If you take enough fibers, you may never have the needs for laxatives in your life.
10. Sweet Potatoes Promote Weight Loss
Still, on the effects of fiber, sweet potatoes can help you lose weight too. All thanks to its high fiber content. Aside from boosting your digestive and gut health, the fiber content of sweet potatoes can also increase your satiety.
Also, the fiber content of sweet potatoes offers your body a more natural, self-sustaining, and effective weight loss technique as well as body weight control. You’re able to stay for long without having to fight the urge to snack on something and that alone can cut down your calorie intake by a long stretch.
Sweet potatoes come in different varieties, but that does not change the fact that they are all highly nutritious and very beneficial to our health. They are versatile; different parts of the world have their own peculiar recipes for preparing sweet potato dishes.
It’s easy to prepare too; just in case you’ve never tried it and you want to make it a regular part of your diet.
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