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If you’ve been passing over sweet potatoes because your only experience with this root vegetable is as a side dish fried in oil, slathered in butter, or topped with toasted marshmallows, you’re missing out. The sweet potato is actually an excellent choice of starchy carbs, thanks to its high fiber content and beneficial nutrients. (Oh, and don’t let the word sweet in its name fool you…it actually scores lower on the glycemic index than a white potato!)
Sweet potatoes are good for people with diabetes, people who want to lower their cholesterol, and people who want to lose weight—plus, they’re just plain tasty! Here’s why you should stop avoiding sweet potatoes and start embracing them as part of a healthy diet.
9 health benefits of sweet potatoes
Not just a cheap, easy, and delicious addition to anyone’s diet, there are several health benefits of sweet potatoes, including helping with gut and eye health and lowering cholesterol.
1. They’re high in fiber.
If you’re looking for a yummy, high-fiber food, look no further than these tubers. They’re packed with both soluble and insoluble fiber—about 4 grams per cup—which helps keep your bowel movements regular, says physician and registered dietitian Amy Burkhart, MD, of The Celiac MD. All that dietary fiber is also good for lowering cholesterol: Consuming soluble fiber every day can reduce your LDL cholesterol by several points.
2. They pack a nutritional punch.
Lots of good-for-you foods get casually called “superfoods,” but if there’s one that definitely deserves the title, it’s the sweet potato. Fiber, vitamin B6, A, C, and K, and potassium are just some of the notable nutrients in a single serving of sweet potato. When you combine this healthy nutritional profile with minimal amounts of fat and a sugar content that falls comparatively low on the glycemic index, you’ve got a recipe for a true “superfood.”
Sweet potatoes are also a non-dairy source of calcium. One large sweet potato has 68 mg of calcium.
And did we mention their antioxidant properties? Many varieties of sweet potatoes, especially purple sweet potatoes, have high levels of antioxidants called anthocyanins—so much so, in fact, that they may even have anti-inflammatory and anticancer benefits as they protect the body from free radicals.
“Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of flavonoids, which are potent antioxidants [that] can help provide protection against heart disease and cancer, and support healthy aging and mental health,” Dr. Burkhart says.
3. They can help maintain blood sugar levels.
Some types of sweet potato—particularly the Caiapo variety—have been shown to reduce fasting blood glucose levels and lower LDL cholesterol while improving insulin sensitivity, according to New Jersey-based dietitian Erin Palinski-Wade, RD, author of 2 Day Diabetes Diet. That means that even though they’re sweeter than regular potatoes, their high fiber content can make them a good choice for people with diabetes who need to monitor their blood sugar.
“Sweet potatoes can be incorporated into a diabetes meal plan while keeping blood sugar in check,” says Palinski-Wade. “Sweet potatoes provide a good source of fiber, which helps to slow down the digestion and absorption of carbs, preventing drastic blood glucose spikes and improving blood sugar levels after meals.”
4. They’re good for gut health.
Sweet potatoes contain high amounts of both fiber and resistant starch, which work to help keep your gut microbiome healthy, says Dr. Burkhart. While fiber supplies your gut with prebiotics, promoting the growth of beneficial gut bacteria, resistant starch “feeds” the gut bacteria, helping to balance your microbiome, lower your blood sugar, reduce appetite, and fight inflammation.
5. They can improve your eye health.
When it comes to keeping your eyes healthy, carrots aren’t the only veggie you should consume. Sweet potatoes are also a good source of carotenoids like beta carotene, which gives sweet potatoes their orange color and protects the health of your eyes while fighting inflammation. Our bodies basically take beta carotene and turn it into vitamin A, which has been shown to have major benefits in reducing the risk of macular degeneration, per a 2019 study in Antioxidants.
“Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of childhood blindness worldwide, affecting 250,000 to 500,000 children yearly,” says Dr. Burkhart. “Eating sweet potatoes, an inexpensive and widely available food item, can help provide more vitamin A in a child’s diet and thereby fight childhood blindness.”
6. They can help you maintain a healthy weight.
Dr. Burkhart says that sweet potatoes are high in fiber and water content, which means they fill you up for longer and increase your feelings of satiety. This makes you more likely to eat less overall, which can contribute to weight maintenance or even weight loss. Plus, one of the key ways to burn belly fat is by eating plenty of soluble fiber, which sweet potatoes have in spades.
It’s important to note, though, that the way in which you eat sweet potatoes definitely plays a role here. If you’re mashing them up with butter and brown sugar, for example, you won’t notice the same effects on your weight as if you were simply baking or roasting whole sweet potatoes with minimal seasoning.
And don’t forget that there are two components to a healthy lifestyle: diet and exercise.
“Sweet potatoes, by themselves, are not a magic bullet to burn belly fat,” Dr. Burkhart says. “They contain antioxidants and fiber, which can limit weight gain and fat deposition, [but] using them as a means to burn belly fat without a nutritionally balanced diet and exercise [makes it unlikely that you’ll burn belly fat until you address] the other components of a healthy lifestyle.”
7. They’re good for your immune system.
There are many vitamins that support your immune system, but vitamins A and C are two of the most common…and sweet potatoes have both vitamins in fairly high amounts. Just one cup of baked sweet potato contains 37% of the recommended daily value (DV) of vitamin C and way more than 100% of the DV for vitamin A.
While most of the infection-fighting fanfare in the media is devoted to vitamin C, don’t overlook vitamin A’s important part in boosting immunity: According to a 2018 study, vitamin A is critical to the health of certain organs where immune cells multiply and also helps bolster the tissue layers that protect against infection.
8. They help regulate blood pressure.
Potassium-rich foods are key for regulating blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association. That’s because this mineral works to offset the effects of sodium. Meaning, increasing your potassium intake helps your body expel more sodium in your urine. Sweet potatoes happen to be high in potassium, containing about 700 mg each. That’s about 15% of the recommended daily allowance, another great reason to add sweet potatoes to your diet.
9. They make your skin glow.
One medium sweet potato contains about 0.335 mg of manganese. That’s about 18.6% of the recommended daily value of manganese for women and 14.6% for men. According to research, manganese is a collagen-producing mineral, so getting plenty of the mineral can improve skin health by improving hydration and boosting skin elasticity.
Sweet potato nutrition facts
Palinski-Wade says that a 3-ounce sweet potato is considered one serving, but you can also calculate the nutritional benefits by measuring out roughly one cup of cooked sweet potato. Within a single serving, you’ll get about:
- 114 calories
- 27 grams of carbohydrates
- 2 grams of protein
- 448 milligrams of potassium
- 6 grams of sugar
While that’s more sugar per serving than one cup of carrots or broccoli, Palinski-Wade notes that the complex carbohydrates in sweet potatoes are digested gradually, which helps to prevent spikes in blood sugar. If you combine your serving of sweet potato with lean protein and healthy fat like olive oil, she adds, you can help balance out your blood sugar levels even more.
Even though they have a bit more sugar than some other vegetables, sweet potatoes are still a good choice for a daily source of carbs and fiber. In fact, says Dr. Burkhart, they are often eaten every day in many other parts of the world, including Asia and Africa.
In general, the only people who should truly avoid sweet potatoes are people who are allergic to them, people who can’t tolerate their high fiber content, and people with a history of kidney stones. “Sweet potatoes contain oxalates, which can cause kidney stones in people prone to forming oxalate stones,” Dr. Burkhart says.
Bottom line: Why are sweet potatoes healthy?
Sweet potatoes definitely live up to their name, but their sugar content often gets a bad rap. Thanks to high amounts of fiber and water, sweet potatoes remain low on the glycemic index. Plus, they can aid in gut health and digestion, help you maintain your blood sugar levels, promote healthy eyesight, and lower cholesterol, among other sweet potato health benefits.
Interestingly, Palinski-Wade says that cooling and reheating your sweet potato before eating it can increase its nutritional benefits even more, increasing levels of resistant starch and lowering its glycemic index by as much as 28%.
There’s no shortage of creative sweet potato recipes, so there’s little risk of getting bored: Roast and season them after cutting them into cubes or wedges, crisp them in the air fryer for a healthier spin on sweet potato fries, slice and toast them as a swap for bread in your morning avocado toast, and chop them up to add to soups or pasta. Palinski-Wade says you can even blend them into smoothies with some cinnamon for a sweet treat.
