High in Fibre, vitamin A, beta carotene and low in glycaemic index, the humble sweet potato is a great vegetable to add to any diet.
Meet the sweet potato, arguably the most nutritious vegetable around. A root vegetable, it has more fibre than oatmeal when eaten with the skin on. As its orange color hints at, it has almost twice the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A and four times the recommended daily allowance for beta caratene, an antioxidant.
I learnt this from reading a nutrition chart tacked on the wall of a riverside cafe in Vacouver, Canada. It was serving hamburgers with wedges of sweet potato, which North Americans call a yam. I could not believe the good numbers associated with this tuber, which also tasted better than any ordinary potato wedge.
I looked at the sweet potato in a different light. And there is more.
Despite its sweetness, diabetics can eat it because it has a low glycaemic index.
If you do not already know, the glycaemic index is one of the most important measures for foods. It ranks how quickly the body converts carbohydrates into sugar. The lower the glycaemic index in a food, the slower it will be digested. This causes the level of blood sugar to rise gradually rather than quickly, which is important for diabetics. This also means that you feel satisfied longer, which is beneficial for weight loss control.
According to nutritionists, the single most important change that most people can make in their diets is to replace fatty foods with foods rich in complex carbohydrates and with a low glycaemic index, such as sweet potatoes.
Since I found out about this, I have been adding sweet potato to my menus and there are many ways to do this, even in local recipes.
Sweet potato Salad is so healthy, I do not feel bad about adding roast duck (without the skin) in the diet dish.
Indeed, if you are counting carbohydrates in your diet, chuck out the bread, rice, potatoes and corn and eat sweet potato instead.
A quarter of a cup of sweet potatoes has just 10g of carbohydrates - an amount that is recommended even
on carbohydrate-restricted programmes such as the Atkins diet.
