THE NEW YORK TIMES – Here are some of the ways sweet potatoes benefit your body, along with ideas from New York Times Cooking for how to prepare them on Thanksgiving Day, and every day.
They’re a natural source of electrolytes.
Sweet potatoes are a good source of potassium, an electrolyte that you sweat out when you exercise. Potassium also helps you maintain a healthy blood pressure.
The body relies on potassium, which carries a charge, to send electrical signals between nerves, said Holly Gilligan, a registered dietitian at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Fitness Science program.
Potassium helps to keep your nerves firing, your heart beating and your muscles contracting.
One medium cooked sweet potato contains around 350 milligrams of potassium — about 12 percent of the recommended daily amount for an average adult and more than six times what you get in a 12-ounce bottle of Gatorade.
They won’t spike your blood sugar.
Sweet potatoes get their signature flavor from naturally occurring sugars; one medium sweet potato has around nine grams. “For some context, that’s about a quarter of what you would find in a regular soda,” Dr. Bridges said.
But unlike a sugary beverage, sweet potatoes are relatively high in dietary fiber (about four grams per potato).
Fiber is a lot of work for the body to digest, which slows down the breakdown of sugar, said Judy Simon, a clinical dietitian at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Blood sugar levels spike when you consume soda, but when you eat a sweet potato, blood sugar levels rise gradually.
High-fiber foods, including sweet potatoes, can even boost the body’s production of GLP-1, the hormone that drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy mimic, Ms. Simon said. GLP-1 stimulates the release of insulin and slows down digestion, which helps you feel full for longer.
