SEASONAL BITE

Sweet potatoes are a favorite around our household.  We eat them in stews, pureed in soups, and sauteed for tacos, but the all-around winner here is simply scrubbed whole, covered with a light layer of oil, and roasted until soft and delicious.  I roast sweet potatoes on the nights I want to make sure that everyone eats a good dinner with no objections.Nutritionally, sweet potatoes are quite dense; they are high in B vitamins, trace minerals, and are packed with carotenes that act as excellent antioxidants in the body.  I tend to choose the sweet potatoes at the store that are labeled garnet yams.  The flesh is softer and moister and the deep color of the flesh signals that they are much higher in carotenes which is an added health bonus.The sweet surprise with sweet potatoes is that they are also good for our blood sugar.  Despite their flavor, they are much lower on the glycemic index than a regular potato (most charts list them on the “low” end of the index, somewhere in the neighborhood of 55), and studies have shown them to actually assist in stabilizing blood sugar.  A typical serving is high in fiber yet only contains around 8 grams of sugar (which is less than what is found in a serving of milk).  The American Diabetes Association even lists them as one of their top ten diabetes superfoods.This is a huge benefit for those of us who are eating seasonally.  As one of our primary winter storage foods, their blood sugar balancing effect helps to keep the adrenals healthy.  This meets our health criteria of supporting our centers of energy production (for more on this, please see my blog post on Cortisol, Blood Sugar, and the Adrenals).  When we utilize sweet potatoes as the primary carbohydrate in a meal instead of bread, pasta, or potato, we are helping the body replenish its energy and stay healthy through the winter months.