Sweet potatoes are one of the most delicious and nutritional foods that we have available to us in abundance.
There are so many health benefits of the sweet potato.
An average sweet potato has about 115 calories. It’s packed full of vitamins and minerals such as, A, B6, C, Calcium, Manganese and Potassium along with many other nutritional values and its high in dietary fiber.
A person could actually live solely on sweet potatoes due to their nutritional value although this is never recommended plus how boring would that be to eat nothing but sweet potatoes.
Here are some healthy dishes and different things you can do with sweet potatoes to enjoy the full healthy nutritional benefits and lose a great deal weight at the same time:
Buying a Sweet Potato
First of all, there are different types of sweet potatoes.
Make sure you don’t confuse the “Yam” which is a member of the sweet potato family but is skinnier than and not as nutritious as a sweet potato. The yam will have a much drier yellow flesh inside verses a moist deep orange flesh of the sweet potato.
The sweetest and the best tasting sweet potato will have a more plump and orange look to it. Make sure when you are choosing a sweet potato that you choose one that is heavy and dense, free of any bruising, no wrinkles and appears good and ripe.
Healthy Snack
At the start of the day cut up two to three sweet potatoes and place small portions in individual bags and keep in the refrigerator.
The reason for small portions is that they are so good and crunchy you could end up eating all of them in one setting rather than using them as a healthy snack to satisfy your appetite.
The best way to cut them is like a thick potato chip or French fry.
You can peel them or leave the skin on for extra roughage but they are sweeter and better tasting without the skin.
Eat Healthy Meals
Eat 3 good healthy low calorie meals during the day making sure you cover all the food groups. You can snack all day and between meals on your already prepared bags of cut up sweet potatoes.
Typical low calorie diet plan:
Breakfast: if you have a juicer you can juice 1 whole sweet potato with slice of apple (very sweet) / 1 to 2 poached or hard boiled eggs / dry toast / half a grapefruit.
Lunch: half a cup of tuna / 1 sweet potato cut up / half of banana.
Dinner: grilled chicken breast / sliced grilled sweet potatoes / garden salad.
Things you can do with a sweet potato
You can use a sweet potato with almost any food or in almost any dish. Because it’s sweet, crunchy and looks pleasing you can do anything with it. Grilled / roasted / mashed / candied / chop it up in a green salad or fruit salad / chopped up in your favorite cereal / chopped in on top of ice cream / grate it in a meatloaf / scrambled up in eggs / juiced / dried / sweet potato pancakes / sweet potato bread / sweet potato casseroles / smashed up sweet potatoes and apples … I’m sounding a little like Buba Gump.
In conclusion
The sweet potato is the most user friendly vegetable we have and they are so good for just a healthy snack instead of chips, cookies or candy and kids love them.
Here’s to living a healthy fit life style.
Article also posted on Bukisa.com and Triond.com by Scott Hallock
