Sweet Potato Health Benefits – The sweet potato is one of the healthiest foods, so the health benefits of this foods is tremendous. You like to eat sweet potatoes, continue your habit because it is not only cheap and readily available in traditional markets.
However, the sweet potato also saves a myriad of health benefits for us. The following are 7 health benefits of Sweet Potato.
Sweet Potato Nutritional Value
Sweet potatoes can be said to be the favorite food of Asians such as Indonesia, Malaysia and others. It is not only sweet in taste but also very easy to prepare for a variety of foods. So, it’s only natural that sweet potato processed foods have so many variants.
Well, before we look at what are the health benefits of sweet potatoes, let’s take a look at the nutritional value contained in these sweet potatoes. This is the nutrient for every 100 grams of sweet potato.
- Water 61.9 grams
- Protein: 1.6 grams
- Energy: 151 calories
- Riboflavin (Vitamin B2): 0.08 mg
- Fat: 0.3 grams
- Phosphorus: 74 grams
- Fiber: 0.7 grams
- Total carotene: 1,208 micrograms (mcg)
- Copper: 0.30 mg
- Iron: 0.7 grams
- Carbohydrates: 35.4 grams
- Sodium: 92 milligrams (mg)
- Potassium: 565.6 mg
- Calcium: 29 grams
- Niacin: 0.7 mg
- Zinc: 0.5 mg
- Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C): 11 mg
- Thiamine (Vitamin B1): 0.13 mg
Sweet Potato Health Benefits
1. Sweet potato contains B6 Vitamin
The content of B6 vitamin in sweet potato helps remove chemicals ‘homocysteine’ of the body. Homocysteine is a hazardous substance that link to degenerative diseases, like heart disorder.
2. Potato is the source of vitamin C
Everyone knows that vitamin C is an essential component of the body’s needs. The benefits of Vitamin C also have a major role in bone health, in the form of teeth and digestive health.
Vitamin C also has important useful to boost immunity, like speeding up the wounds healing and keep healthy skin from free radicals and keep the body always young. Not only that but benefits of vitamin C is also good to ward off toxins that enter the body, such as toxins that cause cancer.
3. Sweet potatoes contain vitamin D
Vitamin D is essential for the body to boost immunity and keep the body healthy. As we know, vitamin D formed in a body as a result of the sunlight absorption.
Vitamin D is one of handler control for the body’s energy, mood, helps form healthy bones, healthy heart, healthy nerves, skin, and teeth, and it help the thyroid gland.
4. Contain iron
Iron has a huge number in sweet potato. Many people know that our body needs the iron to produce enough energy.
Not only that, iron has a capacity of producing red blood cells, white blood cells, stem the occurrence of stress, boost immunity. Not only that but also helps the absorption of protein into the body.
5. Contains magnesium
Magnesium is anti-stress mineral. Sweet potato health benefits are tremendous because it contain much magnesium in it. The useful of magnesium is build a healthy artery, blood, bone, heart, muscle, maintain nerve function.
6. Source of potassium
The Sweet Potato health benefits because it contains potassium. High potassium content in sweet potatoes makes this meal very necessary for health.
Potassium is an electrolyte that controls nerve signals and rate of the heart. Same to other electrolytes, potassium also has an important function in maintaining the activity of the kidney, muscle contraction, and prevent swelling.
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7. Has a sweet taste and ideal to consume
Sugar content in sweet potatoes will be discharged slowly into the bloodstream, so it does not cause a bunch of blood sugar or diabetes.
These are seven sweet potato health benefits you should to know. The sweet potato is a spreading plant that can grow easily. So the sweet potato price in the market is also poor, and readily available.
If you’ve never eaten this healthy food, immediately tried, sweet potatoes can also be a substitute for your morning breakfast.
8. Control blood sugar
For diabetics, sweet potato is not a food to be afraid of because it belongs to the type of food with a low glycemic index. That is, consuming sweet potatoes does not cause a spike in blood sugar because these fiber-rich foods are digested slowly.
Not only to prevent sugar spikes, but the fiber that is so much in sweet potatoes is an important nutrient in controlling diabetes. This is because research states that people who consume a lot of fiber will have a small risk of this disease.
That is why adults who have turned 19 years old are advised to consume sweet potatoes every day, this will help you get more fiber in your daily diet.
9. Reduces the risk of cancer
Sweet potato is an anti-cancer food because it is rich in antioxidants. Research in 2018 states that anthocyanins are a type of antioxidant present in sweet potatoes, which have great benefits for the body because they are able to slow down the growth of cancer cells.
So, do not be surprised if consuming sweet potatoes regularly can reduce the risk of several types of cancer such as prostate cancer, colon cancer, and even breast cancer.
Sweet potato peel extract also contains anti-cancer properties that can increase health benefits. This you can get when you consume it regularly.
10. Improve eye health
The health benefits of sweet potatoes also play a role in healthy eyes. Beta-carotene is a type of substance that affects eye health and is found in sweet potatoes. No half-hearted, sweet potato skin contains many times the beta-carotene for the needs of adults.
Well, when a person consumes beta-carotene, the body will convert it into vitamin A and will form light-detecting receptors in the eye organs.
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Vitamin A is a type of vital vitamin for the eyes, vitamin deficiency can even cause blindness. So eating sweet potatoes which are rich in beta carotene is the best alternative to supply vitamin A to the body.
So, it can be said that eating sweet potatoes has amazing health benefits for eye health.
