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There may not be anything on the Thanksgiving buffet that I look forward to more than sweet potato casserole. Piled into scooped-out orange halves and topped with mini-marshmallows or doused in butter and topped with praline, I don’t care how they are prepared so long as there is a big heap of them on my plate.
Unlike many people, Thanksgiving is far from the only time of year I eat sweet potatoes. I bake them and top them with a little cheese or peach salsa for lunch, or slice them into thick fries seasoned with cayenne pepper and sugar. I dice them into korma; I top them with black bean chili. I guess you could say I’m a big fan.
Even my husband, once wary of my favorite orange root, ordered sweet potato chips with his hummus wrap at lunch yesterday. In fact, he was the one who got my wheels turning about today’s post, asking about the difference between sweet potatoes and what most people call the ingredient in their Thanksgiving casserole, yams. I honestly didn’t know.
With a little internet mining, here’s what I discovered: everything we Southerners call yams and everything we call sweet potatoes are all, in fact, sweet potatoes. Yams aren’t a culinary Santa Clause, though; they do exist. Just not often in these parts.
Yams are tubers (like white potatoes) that were first cultivated in parts of Africa and
What, then, are sweet potatoes? They’re root vegetable (like carrots) in the morning glory family. They were first cultivated in Central and South America and the West Indies though their botanical name, Ipomoca batata, comes from the Native Americans who were cultivating sweet potatoes in
While they share a name with the much more prevalent white potato, sweet potatoes run nutritional laps around the white varieties. A 4 ounce serving of cooked sweet potato supplies 2 grams of protein, 3.4 grams of fiber, 24.6 mg of vitamin C, 28 mg of calcium, 22.6 mcg of folic acid, 20 mg of magnesium, 348 mg of potassium, and 21822 I.U. of vitamin A, all in a medium-sized potato with about 100 calories! But wait! There’s more!
One medium sweet potato has nearly 40% of the RDA (recommended daily allowance) of vitamin E. This fabulous little vitamin works to prevent the oxidation of LDL (bad) cholesterol – meaning, it is thought to help prevent heart disease, stroke and maybe even some types of cancer. What makes sweet potatoes an extraordinary source is that vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin which is most often found in high fat foods like nuts and oils. In sweet potatoes, you get a whopping dose with virtually no fat. A spritz of oil for cooking, sprinkle of pecans or dollop of low-fat sour cream provides enough fat for your body to absorb the E.
Perhaps you’ve heard recent buzz about the glycemic index foods. In a nutshell, the glycemic index measures the effect of carbohydrate rich foods on blood glucose levels as compared to glucose or white bread. According to www.Diabetes.ca, “After you eat, your blood glucose level rises; the speed at which the food is able to increase your blood glucose level is called the ‘glycemic response.’ This glycemic response is influenced by many factors, including how much food you eat, how much the food is processed or even how the food is prepared (for example, pasta that is cooked al dente – or firm – has a slower glycemic response than pasta that is overcooked).”
Low glycemic index foods have been associated with assisting in the prevention and treatment of diabetes, higher HDL (good) cholesterol and a decreased risk in developing heart disease, colon cancer and breast cancer. You know what I’m getting at: on top of the pile of nutrients sweet potatoes provide, they do it in a low glycemic index package. Some recent studies have even shown sweet potatoes to stabilize blood sugar levels and lower insulin resistance in animals. (Side note: I am most often opposed to doing experiments on animals but I also won’t ignore available data.)
There is also some interesting new research coming from a joint Austrian/Italian study where researchers have been giving human subjects a sweet potato extract called Caiapo. Subject with type 2 diabetes who took the extract daily for 3 months saw enough of a drop in their blood sugar that some were able to reduce or even quit their blood sugar-lowering medications. Some also saw a slight reduction in their cholesterol and triglycerides.
I eat sweet potatoes because they taste great… but I’m never opposed to feeling virtuous!
Feedback from an Expert:
That expert being my dad, an MD of the family practitioner variety:
Sarah –
I’m about in the 5th
year as a participant in the Physician’s Health Study II. In
addition to completing periodic detailed questionnaires about my
life and health, I take pills. They are either placebos or
Vitamins or beta-carotenes.
The
first PHS began about 15 years ago and the results are still coming in:
What has been learned to this point is that Beta carotene and Vit E
have no demonstrable benefit for heart or cancer risk.. Even though
they are anti-oxidants and, in theory, should reduce certain disease
risk, there is no proof that this happens.
We
eat so badly in our country that it must have great bearing on our
health, but it is much more complex than our current understanding.
Dad
Ironically, today I finally got around to reading the latest edition of the Nutrition Action Healthletter (which has been sitting on my desk for a good week), the cover story of which is “Antioxidants: Still Hazy After All These Years”.
The bottom-line of the article is that studies including as many as 81,000 people over a decade found that not only do antioxidants not seem to do anything to prevent caner or heart disease, high doses of beta carotene (33,000 to 50,000 IU a day, about twice that found in a medium sweet potato) were shown to be metabolized into carcinogenic compounds in smokers – that is, smokers in the study has a slightly higher risk of lung cancer!
Now, before you throw away all the sweet potatoes you bought yesterday (along with your carrots, red peppers and other orange and red veggies), to quote my dad, “it’s much more complex than our current understanding.”
It seems that the genetic factors that determine how nutrients are metabolized in an individual are based on so many complex genetic combinations that there will be years of research to sort it all out. Meanwhile, it’s still true that people who eat lots of fruit and vegetables tend to be healthier. Maybe it’s because of other nutrients scientists have yet to discover. Or maybe, as Tuft’s University’s Alice Lichtenstein said, it’s because when you’re eating fruits and veggies, “you’re not eating lots of brownies, candy or fat-free ice cream.”
Don’t give up on sweet potatoes. They’re still a guilt-free sweet treat with tons going for them!
Your accounts of your evening at Bistro Sofia just keep getting "better". It is interesting to first hear, then to see, then to see AGAIN how the account has changed, been colored, and been colored outside of the lines of truth. Let me "enlighten" you to a few things.
There is a GREAT thing in life called "SATIRE" - at 27 years old mine is highly developed. At Bistro Sofia we plainly state on the menu cover "Serious dining for diners who don't take themselves too seriously". We have a fiercely loyal following that "get" us. You clearly do not qualify, but it is not because you are Jewish, it is because you are an insecure reason for the perpetuations of the problems that you delusionally think are alive at our little Bistro That Could.
I NEVER said "that is for the Jews", in regards to our comment on the menu (by the way NO ONE HAS EVER CHARGED A CUSTOMER FOR ANY AMOUNT OF BREAD, IT IS A SEMI-SERIOUS JOKE. Oh, I said "semi", am I prejudice?). When you asked me about the bread charge I said "well we have a large Jewish following, and we are Jewish owned and operated, and you know how our Jewish friends like their bread", with my tone and FACE literally escalating in pitch at the end to indicate sarcasm - MAKING FUN OF THE MERE EXISTENCE OF THE STEREOTYPE. There was not a foot in my mouth. In addition, I have NEVER scoffed at anyone who chooses to share an appetizer. I have much better things to think about, like taking tailored care of my guests regardless of if they want to stand on the table and whistle Dixie, yell "I'm Jewish and love bread", basically anything but have sex, to get their money's worth of kicks MUCH LESS share a salad, which by the way are large enough to share - something I know and understand. Where you get these ideas are beyond ALL of us - "us" meaning everyone who knows both Kerrie and me. I have never been concerned with check averages and never will. Neither is Kerrie. He has been my mentor and teacher for ten years and taught me to NEVER think that way. Often he chooses the less-expensive wine for a customer when he COULD milk them for all they're worth, without them even caring! I do not waste my life worrying about imbalance -all I live and breathe is the faith in balance. I have been doing this for ten years. I am not and will NEVER scoff over the extra $.50 that I MAY or MAY NOT get from someone sharing a salad. Please.
In ten years of fine-dining you are the SECOND customer whose card I have over-authorized (note the word "authorized") by mistakenly hitting one extra number on the keypad. It would seem that the people who constantly look for and expect something to be wrong or go wrong will CERTAINLY find it. On that note, we NEVER over-charged you for your meal; I mistakenly pre-authorized your account for an amount which included one simple slip of the finger on the keypad which changed the amount to a four digit number. Pardon our ARCHAIC system, but we make baby-steps towards high-tech dining - you should see our office, it is like a space ship, but the credit card machine is just next on our list, you know, removing the human error factor from it. It was immediately adjusted and would have NEVER actually deducted that amount from your account. By the way, if the people at Wachovia are consistently nice and "rock" to you, then you obviously have enough of a financial cushion to handle a pre-authorization for the wrong amount. Ninety-nine percent of the rest of the population have not had the same experience with Wachovia, aka "Walk-all-over-ya", which is exactly what you are doing to Bistro Sofia. As smart as you seem to think you are where is your knowledge of how the debit card system works? I plainly told you EXACTLY how to remove the temporary hold, and you still called back to inquire about it, doing everything I said to do in reverse order and upsetting yourself, just to find out that you needed to follow the very exact avenues that I explained to do in the first place. WAIT, this keeps getting better.
Just so you know, the Jewish community has been an integral, loved and appreciated part of my entire life. Aside from Beth and Jerry being like second parents and true inspirations, I lived with the original Assistant Headmaster of the American Hebrew Academy for five years and saw the entire creation of the Academy from beginning to end. I was there for the tears, the fears, the entire ride. As a matter of fact I did a little working behind the scenes to help it on it's way, as my partner was the one who basically did all of the initial internal work to develop the protocol and recruit the students while he was grossly underpaid. I even know how much EACH of those stones that make up the beautiful gates cost as well as the OVERCHARGE that occurred, something to the tune of $800,000,000. If you don't know what I mean, then I'm not telling you. Let’s just say that THIS was not a pre-authorization.
This was a job of love and loyalty to the Headmaster and to the Jewish community and their contributions to society. My partner was not even Jewish, but due to his intelligence he was hired for the job anyway. He was a southern Baptist "bumpkin", so place that in your Wachovia coin purse and shake it. I happen to wake up each day and have the pleasure of looking at a very expensive ($12,000) and rare water-color painting GIVEN to my family by Alvin Mars, the original Headmaster of the American Hebrew Academy. In addition, I just returned from Manhattan last night (just to have to swallow your crazy blog) where I went for an interview with a company who serves mostly Israelis. I am also learning to speak Hebrew and my favorite author in the World is Chaim Potok. My favorite teacher at UNC-G is Hebrew and I see her regularly after being out of college for five years. In addition I am a bi-sexual spiritualist who lives with a black lesbian. How you luv dat? OOPS! Ebonics are not P.C., but my roommate does not seem to mind because she is not worried about herself. It is kind of like this: on April 27, 2006 "South Park" won the very prestigious Peabody Award for "teaching intolerance by demonstrating intolerance [satirically]". One of the main things they "make fun of" are Jewish people, but they aren't. The times have changed and taken this issue to the next level - CATCH UP - (ketchup (n.), a condiment made with tomatoes, vinegar and salt, most often consumed in fine dining establishments to the dismay of ALL waiters by people indigenous to the Southeastern United States).
My NON-WESTERN RELIGION teacher at UNC-G identified me as a Mystic, so how 'bout those bumpkin apples? I also have dinner on a regular basis with two different families whom I met through The American Hebrew Academy. I dine in their homes and dine out with them (and I am never allowed to pay), and if you asked them (if I felt comfortable disclosing their names to the likes of your insecurities and maliciousness) they would laugh out loud at your anti-semantic accusations of me. They are, in fact, completely absurd.
You did not say ANYTHING during your meal, when you could have easily. This indicated a lack of tack on YOUR behalf. You did not know what to do, or HOW to do it. On the topic, you indicate that I talked excessively - not true, no bumbling occurred although it is an added dash of salt to your slicing blog. There was not washing down of the foot, there was no foot, only disappointment that you didn't "get it". There was only assumption that our seemingly great rapport thus far had indicated your ability to pick when satire was in use. THAT is what I am guilty of - giving you credit in the first place. Then you sat there the entire time and acted like the world was wonderful and all was well and when you leave you sink in your fangs to not only me, but a restaurant that has struggled from the start to stay alive through all kinds of odds here in "THE SOUTH", also the only restaurant of its type in the area, practicing sustainable farming support, recycling, etc. If not for our "JEWS", which is a shortened word I NEVER used, although it is not technically inappropriate, I would not be sitting here in my lovely apartment, looking out the window at my brand new REDNECK dream truck - which I bought thanks to the Jewish community, indirectly, not by hustling an extra salad or chocolate cake here and there.
Thanks for making your experience bad and blaming it on us (not really, I'm being SARCASTIC). As a matter of fact, I do not thank you.
Most Sincerely,
Joshua Michael Anthony
jmichaelanthony@gmail.com, bring on the onslaught
PS> I dare you not to delete this form your blog
We here in the South celebrate ALL people who are "cool". We don't care who they are, as along as they are nice. I am a perfect example of this. I have VERY southern redneck friends and acquaintances who would normally whip a "gay" man's ass, but they don't because I shine through the stereotypes and they APPRECIATE it. We choose to be this way because the majority of people are stupid and "iggnant", many thanks to the American media mainstream. We also "celebrate our crazy people", as Dixie Carter says. We celebrate the qualities and even the "stereotypes" that make life colorful in the presence of people who we know, and sometimes unfortunately THINK or ASSUME, are on the same page as us. It is called "walking through this world without a chip on your shoulder". I am only guilty of assuming your sense of humor.
In final conclusion, once again my FAVORITE singer and songwriter of ALL time is Ani Difranco, a big ole' Jew, with immigrant parents. Listen to or read her words sometime if you truly want comfort in knowing how I feel about you, then OR now.
I truly apologize for the misunderstanding.
Joshua