Health Benefits Of Sweet Potato "Camote"

Sweet Potato “Camote” should be part of our diet even if you have money to buy or prepare expensive dishes. Camote is among the worl...


Sweet Potato “Camote” should be part of our diet even if you have money to buy or prepare expensive dishes. Camote is among the world’s healthiest food. Every week, it has been my routine to go to nearby market to buy camote for one week consumption. Newly harvested sweet potatoes can last for more than two weeks. It can replace rice in diet. But Filipinos cannot do the switch because we are rice eating country. However, for the past years I have been eating sweet potato instead of rice and it helps me in my weight loss program aside from other health benefits. These are some of the health benefits I found on the web.
"Sweet potatoes are high in vitamin A, vitamin B5, B6, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, and, due to their orange color, are high in carotenoids," said San Diego-based nutritionist Laura Flores. Plus, they're fat-free, relatively low in sodium and have fewer calories than white potatoes — although they do have more sugar. 

Sweet potatoes are one of the best sources of vitamin A; a large one contains more than 100 percent of the daily recommended intake, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Vitamin A is an antioxidant powerhouse, and is linked to anti-aging benefits, cancer prevention and the maintenance of good eyesight, according to the National Institutes of Health.


Health Benefits

Heart health
Sweet potatoes are a great source of B6 vitamins, which are brilliant at breaking down homocysteine, a substance that contributes to the hardening of blood vessels and arteries. Sweet potatoes' potassium content is also helpful for your heart, as it lowers blood pressure by maintaining fluid balance. Potassium is also an important electrolyte that helps regulate your heartbeat. Harvard University School of Public Health, American Heart Association. 

Controlling blood sugar and maintaining energy
For as sweet as they are, sweet potatoes have a low glycemic index (which means they release sugar slowly into the bloodstream). Sweet potatoes — unlike other starchy foods that elevate blood sugar rapidly after [they're consumed] due to their metabolism into sugar — will help steady the levels of blood sugar. This means you won't get blood-sugar spikes, but you will get a steady amount of energy. Flores noted that this regulation occurs even in people with type 2 diabetes. 

As if that weren't sweet enough, sweet potatoes are a terrific source of manganese, according to the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. Manganese helps the body metabolize carbohydrates and thus maintain healthy blood sugar levels, and it can even stabilize your appetite. It also helps the body utilize antioxidants.

Stress
According to the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, sweet potatoes contain magnesium, the go-to mineral for destressing. It promotes relaxation, calmness and a good mood, as well as artery, blood, bone, muscle and nerve health, according to Psychology Today.

Immunity and anti-inflammatory properties
Due to the color-pigmented vitamins, sweet potatoes are high in anti-inflammatory benefits. One sweet potato contains about half of the daily recommended intake of vitamin C. Vitamins A and E also support a healthy immune system and are powerful disease-fighting antioxidants. While orange sweet potatoes contain more vitamin A, purple sweet potatoes are packed with the antioxidant anthocyanin, which is responsible for red, blue and purple colors in fruits and vegetables. According to the Linus Pauling Institute, pigment-related antioxidants have anti-inflammatory properties, which are beneficial to overall health and help mitigate inflammatory disorders.

Skin and hair
Vitamin A may help protect against sun damage, according to a 2004 study in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, and vitamins C and E are well-known for their beauty benefits. They encourage healthy, glowing skin and collagen growth.

Digestion
According to the Cleveland Clinic, sweet potatoes are a good source of dietary fiber, which helps the body maintain a healthy digestive tract and regulates digestion.

Cancer prevention
Orange sweet potatoes have been shown to have anti-carcinogenic properties and the NIH reports that some studies have suggested that beta-carotene may reduce the risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women and ovarian cancer in postmenopausal women. 
However, purple sweet potatoes may be even more effective than orange sweet potatoes in staving off cancer. Purple sweet potatoes have been shown to have better cancer-fighting abilities, with a positive effect on cancer cell growth.

Source: http://www.livescience.com/



I want to share to you my knowledge about law, our travels with my family, success principles as well as healthy insights. I hope you will enjoy and learn from my blog.

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1 comments

  1. UnknownDecember 4, 2015 at 6:57 AM

    I have heard this that camote is a healthy food for our health. I prefer to take it regularly. I can make potato with camote. My family always like it

    ReplyDelete