Core Tip: Experts say the biggest benefit of sweet potatoes is their ability to regulate the intestines. They contain soluble fiber and a large amount of gut flora, which helps with bowel regularity and detoxification. Due to their low fat and calorie content, they also play a certain role in weight loss and fitness.
Experts say the biggest benefit of sweet potatoes is their ability to regulate the intestines. They contain soluble fiber and a large amount of gut flora, which helps with bowel regularity and detoxification. Due to their low fat and calorie content, they also play a certain role in weight loss and fitness.
How to eat sweet potatoes for more nutrition? First, avoid eating them raw. In many places in the south, it's trendy to eat raw sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are high in starch, which is difficult to digest when raw, so it's best to cook them. High-temperature heating also makes the soluble fiber easier to digest, shortens its sugar chains, and enhances the sweet potato's sweetness. Second, avoid eating them alone. When eating sweet potatoes, you should pair them with other grains. Eating them alone can lead to an unbalanced diet due to their low protein content. Therefore, the traditional method of cutting sweet potatoes into pieces and cooking them into a porridge with rice is actually more scientific.
Excessive flatulence is a reason many people shy away from sweet potatoes. Eating about 200 grams of sweet potatoes at a time generally won't cause this embarrassing problem. Pairing them with rice or flour and eating them with pickles or drinking some vegetable soup can also help prevent it. Compared to white-fleshed varieties, red-fleshed sweet potatoes have higher nutritional value. When buying sweet potatoes, you should choose those with red flesh and a deeper color, as they contain more carotene.
Sweet potato leaves are the tender leaves at the top of the above-ground vines after the sweet potatoes have matured. The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center has classified sweet potato leaves as a high-nutrient vegetable, calling them the "queen of vegetables". In recent years, a "sweet potato leaf fever" has swept through countries and regions such as Japan, Europe, and America.
There are two main ways to eat sweet potato leaves. The first is to select fresh leaf tips, blanch them in boiling water, and then dress them with seasonings like sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, chili oil, and ginger juice to make a cold salad. The appearance is tender green and whets the appetite. The second is to stir-fry them like vegetables such as romaine lettuce or water spinach, which has a unique, fresh, and sweet flavor. She speculates that sweet potato leaves have not been developed in our country, which may be related to people's perceptions and the level of preservation technology. Abroad, freeze-drying technology is generally used, which increases the cost of the vegetables.