You don't know which is better for you - standard or sweet potatoes? Well read on. While many people rant on about the benefits of sweet potatoes, ordinary potatoes are good for you too. There is a drive to reduce the consumption of starch. But be careful about this. Human beings have been eating tubers for hundreds of thousands of years. It is starch from wheat that is new to us - only ten thousand years. Our bodies have evolved to be able to digest tubers.
Processed food like flour is unnatural. Tubers have starch balanced with other elements. This slows down digestion and releases sugar very slowly into the body. Bread is digested quickly. You are hungry again in no time.
Sweet potatoes are not the best low GI (slow sugar release) in an absolute comparison of standard potatoes. Some varieties of potatoes are floury while others are waxy. They differ in GI qualities.
Cooking methods change the GI index. Boiling is best because water binds with the starch. Baking concentrates the sugar. Cutting up before cooking preserves the starch. Cooking potatoes whole raises sugariness. These methods can make sweet potatoes have a higher GI than standard boiled potatoes.
The thing about antioxidants can be ignored. In tests with mice it was found the long-living mice had more oxidants in their bodies than shorter-living ones. All vegetables are high in minerals, vitamins and trace elements. Sweet potatoes compare to Brussels sprouts and spinach, but white potatoes are sufficiently high. Note that we eat potatoes with other things. The "other things" provide missing elements that potatoes lack.
✴ Chemistry by Ty Buchanan ✴
