There are a lot of things we can all do in life to make small improvements. Sometimes it’s a simple as getting in a 20 minute workout or even just taking the stairs. Sometimes they’re small simple choices like, what kind of potato to buy at the grocery store or maybe whether to get real ice cream or frozen yogurt. If you make the healthy choice more often than not, these small choices add up to an overall heathier lifestyle and improved nutrition.
Take the potato for instance. The regular white potato has a well deserved reputation for being a “sugar bomb”. They’re loaded with carbs, starch and they’re make your blood sugar go crazy. Dieters avoid them like the plague. The sweet potato on the other hand, is packed full of nutrients, antioxidants and makes it to the top of every “best” food list there is. They’re almost 40% heart healthy soluble fiber, which is the kind that helps lower your blood sugar and cholesterol.
Make the simple switch to sweet potatoes and you’ll be getting lots of vitamin C, vitamin A, carotenoids, orange and yellow pigments (which help with insulin management) and potassium. Potassium helps lower blood pressure and you can get more of it in a sweet potato than in a banana!
There are tons of great sweet potato recipes online and the easiest thing to do is pop one in the microwave. Try to avoid the temptation to doctor it up and add all kinds of brown sugar and butter. While tasty, it completely adds more fat and calories than its worth. They’re a vegetable, but they still feel like they could be a main ingredient of a meal, like Sweet Potato Shepherds Pie or Sweet Potato Soup.
The one type of sweet potato to stay away from is the canned type. They’re usually packed in a sugary syrup, which basically out weighs their great nutritional qualities.