Are Sweet Potatoes Good For Diabetics

Types Of Sweet Potato

There are over 400 different varieties of sweet potatoes found all over the world. These varieties all have their characteristic fusiform shape, their small to medium size, and their sweet taste. However, there are a few additional, or lost nutrient to each variety, that accounts for their different colors.

The following are the most commonly cultivated sweet potato varieties.

• Hannah sweet potatoes

It is the very sweet variety of sweet potato, that has a light brown skin, and a creamy white to yellow flesh. Its skin and flesh are smooth skin to touch, and both thick and fairly hard.

• Stokes purple sweet potatoes

It has a completely purple color, both inside and outside. Its flesh is quite dry, compared to other varieties, and it is less sweet.

• Japanese sweet potatoes

The Japanese sweet potato has a mix of the properties of the Hannah and a mix of the stokes purple potatoes. It has a purple and fairly smooth skin and a white, fairly firm flesh.

• Jewel sweet potatoes

Both the skin and the flesh of this variety of sweet potato is orange in color. It is sweet to eat and flesh yet firm when cooked.

• Garnet sweet potatoes

This variety of sweet potato is much like the jewel sweet potato, except that it is much more reddish in color than the jewel on the outside.

Now, lets turn on to their nutritional content

What Are The Health Benefits Of Sweet Potato

The sweet potato, often mistakingly called a yam, is considered a superfood because of its many health benefits.

There are several nutrients provided by the sweet potato, including Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, protein, fiber, and 448 mg potassium per cup. This can lead to everything from better eyesight to improved muscle development.

Carbohydrates Of Sweet Potatoes And Yams

Yams and sweet potatoes are quite similar in carbohydrates and fiber content. One 4 oz. serving of yams contains 27 g of carbohydrates with 4 g from fiber and 0.5 g from sugars. A half-cup serving of sweet potatoes contains 21 g of carbs and 3 g of fiber, but 8 g of sugars. This combination of carbs, fiber and sugars helps determine how the food will affect your blood sugar.

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Sweet Potato Health Benefits

• Relatively low GI. This will make it easier for people with diabetes to manage their blood sugar levels. However, there are several other health benefits that youll be able to receive.
• Valuable source of Vitamin A. This can be a good way to improve your eyesight. It will also be able to reduce the appearance of acne and help you maintain a strong immune system.
• Rich in beta carotene. This functions as a powerful antioxidant, which can fight off dangerous agents, such as cancer cells.
• Contains Vitamin C. This can improve your immune system. It can also help you maintain healthy bones and teeth. Vitamin C also help your body absorb more iron.
• Source of iron. Iron helps with muscle development. Its also important for the creation of red blood cells, which are responsible for carrying oxygen around the body.
• Protein . Proteins are complex at the molecular level. They make up your hair, nails, bones, and muscles. Protein gives organs and tissues their shape, and help them function. They provide a sensation of satiety, or fullness, which helps you eat less when you are trying to lose weight.
• Fiber. Dietary fiber is best known for its ability to relieve or prevent constipation. Fiber also helps with maintaining a healthful weight, lowering your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers. It can help suppress the appetite, making it easier to stick to your meal plan.

It’s Not As Bad As It Looks

That being said, there are a couple of reasons sweet potatoes might not throw your meal plan off balance. First, a large sweet potato is a substantial quantity, and if you’re diabetic your meal plan probably calls for a serving of no more than 1/3 cup mashed or one small potato. This brings down your total carbohydrates to a much more manageable 12 grams for a small baked sweet potato, or a shade over 19 grams for 1/3 cup boiled, mashed sweet potato. Those figures are still high, but easier to incorporate into your daily total. Also, a large portion of those total carbohydrates comes in the form of fiber, which doesn’t raise your blood sugar and contributes to your overall health.

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Dont Have Time To Read

• Sweet potatoes have abundant nutritional value.
• Sweet potatoes are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, fiber, and minerals.
• It can be consumed by boiling, roasting, with or without skin, in moderate quantities.
• Sweet potato is good for diabetes, owing to its low glycemic index when consumed after boiling.
• It offers multiple health benefits and cures metabolic disorders.
• Use Phable Care App to consult Indias leading diabetologists, order medicines, book lab tests, integrate Accu-Chek instant and other devices to get real-time remote care from the comfort of your home. Lets treat diabetes together.

Sweet Potato Serving Size

But before you go filling your plate with sweet potatoes, note that serving size is crucial to enjoying them with diabetes. “Too much of any type of carbohydrate can lead to unwanted blood sugar spikes,” says Blake Metcalf, RD, CDE, a registered dietitian and the clinical nutrition manager for Morrison Healthcare in Fort Smith, Arkansas, “so be mindful of serving sizes.”

Per the ADA, with a manageable serving size, the increase in your blood sugar levels should also remain manageable. The ADA refers to the Plate Method , and notes that foods in the carb category like sweet potatoes should take up about a quarter of your plate.

But if you’re counting carbs, the ADA also notes that several factors influence your personal carb needs including your size, your appetite and your activity levels, and there is no magic number of carbs for everyone. As such, the ADA recommends talking to a dietitian or a certified diabetes educator to help determine the ideal amount for you.

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Choosing And Storing Sweet Potatoes

Picking the right sweet potato can make all the difference when youre trying to achieve that perfect baked sweet potato. So how do you end up with the right one? Go for thinner, uniform sweet potatoes.

Although you may be tempted to pick the more meatier potato, thinner sweet potatoes will cook evenly all the way through to the center. With fatter sweet potatoes, the outsides will be done before the centers have been fully cooked. If youve ever encountered this problem when baking sweet potatoes, its probably because youre cooking with the wrong size.

Top 15 Reasons Why Sweet Potatoes Are Good For Diabetic Patients

Being a foodie and being a diabetic is one bad combination that one must never have. A diabetic will be stripped off their privilege to eat whatever they feel like and nothing else is more depressing than this. Foods with high carbohydrate content is a big no-no for them, as the blood sugar levels will shoot upwards due to this. Gradually, this will damage the blood vessels and lead to other problems like heart diseases, kidney problems, stroke, blindness and amputations. Foods for diabetic patients must include slow-digesting carbohydrates, in order for them to stay healthy. The best example for this is sweet potato. Are sweet potatoes good foods for patients with diabetes? Have you been haunted by this question anytime? Read further to find out. Sweet potatoes have a low glycaemic index and are considered the best for diabetic control. Moderate consumption of sweet potatoes will help in keeping the blood sugar levels in a healthy range. It contains 26 grams of carbohydrates and 3.8 gram of dietary fibre. A cup of mashed sweet potatoes contains 58 grams of carbohydrates and 8.2 grams of fibre. This can be considered as the best food for diabetic patients. Sweet potatoes can be consumed in various methods, but always remember to consume it in the right amount. This article will answer your question as to whether sweet potatoes are good for diabetes or not.Continue reading > >

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Sweet Potatoes And Diabetes: Are Sweet Potatoes Good For Diabetics

Diabetes is a complicated disease to handle, you always need to be careful of what you are eating and in how much quantity. As such, there are a lot of questions as to whether including a particular vegetable in the daily diet of a diabetic is safe or not. In this article, we shall explore more about the relationship between sweet potatoes and diabetes.

Let us analyze and see whether including the sweet potatoes in the daily diet of a diabetic patient is healthy or not.

• How Can You Include Sweet Potato in Your Diet?

The Initial Causes Are Sweet Potatoes Okay For Diabetics

Type 2 diabetes is a common condition in many people. This type is caused by a lack of insulin and is a result of an unhealthy lifestyle. The bodys inability to process glucose from the blood can damage many parts of the body, including the eyes, kidneys, and nerves. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to avoid diabetes. Here are five tips to help you lower your risk: Eat more vegetables and fruits, get regular exercise, and avoid smoking.

High levels of triglycerides in the blood are another factor that can cause diabetes. These triglycerides are caused by a buildup of cholesterol in the blood. A high triglyceride level causes the body to misrepresent insulin as a molecule, which causes glucose to build up in the blood. A simple blood glucose test can confirm your diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. By following these tips, you can begin living a healthy life and avoid the complications of diabetes.

A person with type 2 diabetes must consume less sugar. Glucose causes thirst and dehydration because the body releases energy stores into the bloodstream instead of using insulin. If untreated, diabetes can lead to weight loss and diabetic ketoacidosis, a dangerous condition whereby the cells are deprived of energy. To prevent the condition, you must make sure that your diet is low in glycemic load and that you exercise regularly.

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Is Sweet Potatoes Good For Diabetics

Sweet potatoes can also help manage diabetes Sweet potatoes are categorized as low to high on the glycemic index scale, and several studies have indicated that it can minimize the occurrence of insulin resistance and low blood sugar levels, as well as high blood sugar in people who are suffering from diabetes .

Consider Tree Nuts For Other Sources Of Healthy Fats

Loaded with fiber and protein, nuts are filling and contain high levels of unsaturated fats, the kind that contribute to HDL, or “good” cholesterol, making them a boon to your heart health. But when it comes to stabilizing blood sugar, polyunsaturated fats in tree nuts such as almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, and pistachios are especially beneficial.

In a review and meta-analysis published in July 2014 in BMJ Open, Canadian researchers looked at data from 12 clinical trials and found that eating two servings of tree nuts a day lowered and stabilized blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes and unhealthy cholesterol levels , and stabilized metabolic syndrome.

Plant-based healthy fats can improve lipid levels, says Kaufman. She recommends adding foods rich in polyunsaturated fats to help reduce high cholesterol related to elevated blood glucose, but with a caveat. Although healthy, these foods do have a higher amount of calories, so I would limit them to one serving per day, Kaufman notes. The Cleveland Clinic defines one serving as 1 oz or 35 peanuts, 24 almonds, 14 walnut halves, or 18 cashews.

A review of clinical studies published in the American Journal of Nutrition found that a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli may help reduce the risk of cancer.

Plus, with 5.52 g of fiber , broccoli is filling which makes it a good choice for people who are trying to lose weight and control type 2 diabetes.

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A Few Notes On Serving

Once you settle on having sweet potatoes as part of your meal, you should rule out other high-carb options such as dinner rolls, biscuits or white bread. Treat the sweet potato as your main starch for the meal, and keep the rest of the plate clear for your entree and plenty of nonstarchy vegetables, which are mostly low in carbs.

Whether you’ve baked it, boiled it in pieces or diced and roasted it, a small sweet potato makes a nutrient-dense addition to your meal. Of the three methods, roasting might be the most versatile. The sweet potatoes will caramelize in your oven, adding flavor, and you can enhance the effect by tossing them in a herb-heavy marinade or a dry spice rub. The roasted pieces can be served hot as a side dish, incorporated into a salad to make it more filling, or even tucked into a vegetarian taco or burrito made with a low-carb tortilla.

References

How Much Sweet Potato Can Someone With Diabetes Eat Safely

While sweet potatoes can be a good diet choice for people with diabetes, its important to remember that these orange veggies still contain carbs. Portion control is key to balancing the positive effects that sweet potatoes can have on a diabetes diet. A typical serving size is ½ cup, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Kaufman recommends half of a medium-size sweet potato for most people with diabetes because this is the equivalent of 15 grams of carbohydrates. But be sure to check with your doctor or dietitian to find out the best portion for you, as recommendations vary from person to person, according to the latest American Diabetes Association recommendations, published in January 2014 in Diabetes Care.

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Carbohydrates And Sweet Potatoes

Let us first understand how carbohydrates are related to sweet potatoes or how much carbohydrate does this humble vegetable contain.

• It is known that a medium sized sweet potato contains somewhere around 25 to 26 grams of carbohydrates. Included in this is around 3.8 to 4 grams of fiber.
• If you take a cup and mash the sweet potatoes in the same, you will get around 58 grams of carbohydrates and around 8 grams of fiber.

What makes the sweet potatoes healthy for a diabetes patient is the amount of dietary fiber found within the carbohydrate. This helps in stabilizing and maintaining a healthy level of blood glucose or blood sugar in a diabetic patient.

Are Sweet Potatoes Part Of The Potato Family

The simple answer is no. Sweet potatoes are actually a root vegetable, and they are a different species than regular potatoes. They can be baked, roasted, boiled, mashed or grilled. While botanically different from regular potatoes, they are often treated as a member of the potato family because of their similar consistency, flavour and cooking methods.

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Nutritional Content Of Sweet Potato

The sweet potato is one of the healthiest vegetables to be consumed. Its rich contents are all of good advantage to the body. Its high-water content, its carbohydrate and fiber content, as well as the no-fat content, makes the sweet potato very rich.

Below is the breakdown of the nutritional content of a 100grams sweet potato

• Calories

Sweet potato has a moderate caloric content of 86 to 103 calories. This level of caloric content is considered healthy and safe. It is due only to the sweet potatos rich carbohydrate content, not from fat.

• Water

In a medium-sized sweet potato, water makes up a 70% of its content. Sweet potato, thus richly hydrates the body, and is, therefore, a perfect meal for healthy skin.

• Protein

The protein content in a 100gram of potato, is only about 2%.

Sweet potatoes are not the best tuber vegetable to consider for a protein source. However, the type of proteins present, contains antioxidants properties, important for immunity.

• Carbohydrate

20.1 grams of carbs are found in 100 grams of sweet potato. Starch forms the bulk of the carbohydrates present in the sweet potato, and is responsible for the white ooze seen in freshly peeled potatoes.

• Sugar

The sugar content in a medium-sized sweet potato is about 4.2 grams. The type of sugar present includes all simple sugar like fructose, glucose and sucrose.

• Fiber

Sweet potato is also rich in fiber, with 3 grams of fiber in a 100 gram of potato.

• Fat

• Antioxidants

• Vitamins

How To Enjoy Sweet Potatoes

If you have diabetes, sweet potatoes are a safe option to add to your diet in moderation.

Sweet potatoes are known to be high in fiber and have a low glycemic index, which results in a less immediate impact on blood glucose levels. This can help individuals with diabetes control their blood sugar.

As someone with diabetes, if you do consume sweet potatoes, the amount and how you prepare the sweet potato is important.

There was a study that showed that out of 70,773 people consuming three servings per week of mashed, boiled, or baked potatoes there was an increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes by 4%.

The study also looked at the consumption of French fries, and the risk elevated to 19%. Consuming fried potatoes can lead to weight gain and other health issues. For individuals with diabetes, weight control is important.

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