Eating baked sweet potatoes is a very satisfying experience, and many people love the feeling of eating them. Besides, sweet potatoes are a healthy food, and eating more of them has many benefits. However, experts warn people that eating baked sweet potatoes from street vendors has three hazards:
1. Baking sweet potatoes with coal can produce toxins
The baked sweet potatoes sold on the street are mostly baked with coal. When coal burns, it produces large amounts of sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as toxic substances like arsenic. After being baked this way, sweet potatoes are easily contaminated by these toxic substances. Eating such contaminated sweet potatoes can easily lead to poisoning. In severe cases, the digestive and respiratory systems can be damaged. Additionally, because most street-side baked sweet potato stalls lack sanitation facilities, the baked sweet potatoes are easily subject to secondary contamination.
2. The baking oven for sweet potatoes might be made from chemical drums
The baking ovens for street sweet potatoes are mostly made from discarded iron barrels. These waste iron barrels may have been gasoline or diesel barrels, or they may have been chemical raw material barrels. Because these waste barrels have not been thoroughly disinfected, their hygiene cannot be guaranteed. Moreover, some iron barrels still have many chemical residues, most of which are harmful to the human body. After being baked at high temperatures in the iron barrel, the sweet potatoes will absorb many of the chemicals inside. Eating such baked sweet potatoes can cause harm to the respiratory and nervous systems.
3. The black spots on sweet potatoes are harmful to the human body
Nowadays, some vendors who sell baked sweet potatoes will bake and sell sweet potatoes that have grown black spots, treating them as good ones. This is harmful to people who eat sweet potatoes. Experts explain that sweet potatoes infected with black spot bacteria will exude two toxins: ipomeamarone and ipomeamaronol. These two toxins will make the raw sweet potatoes hard and bitter, and boiling, steaming, or roasting them cannot kill the black spot bacteria. After being roasted, the sweet potatoes with brown and dark brown spots will have their originally obvious black spots become less noticeable, and ordinary people simply cannot identify them. After eating black spot sweet potatoes, some people may experience symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea. In severe cases, high fever, shortness of breath, convulsions, vomiting blood, coma, and even death can occur. Therefore, if someone accidentally eats a black spot sweet potato, they should immediately induce vomiting or perform a bowel evacuation. For those with severe poisoning symptoms, they should be sent to the hospital for treatment.
Expert advice: People who often eat baked sweet potatoes from the street should be wary of the three hazards mentioned above. For your health, be cautious about eating street-side baked sweet potatoes. If you really like to eat baked sweet potatoes, you might as well make them yourself. You can buy fresh, clean, and smooth-skinned raw sweet potatoes from the supermarket and then bake them in the microwave. A half-pound raw sweet potato will be cooked in 15 minutes. Such baked sweet potatoes are reassuring to eat.