Best Way To Cook A Sweet Potato For Health
Best Way To Cook A Sweet Potato For Health
I am not a heavy starch eater and that includes eating sweet potatoes. If I do eat a potato I would eat a sweet potato over a white potato because a sweet potato has a better nutrient content than a white potato. Dr. Greger explains the best way to cook a sweet potato to maintain more of its nutrients and to keep its glycemic level and load at its lowest.
Boiling appears to be the best way to cook a sweet potato to maintain its antioxidant power, compared to baking and steaming. Comparing boiling to baking sweet potatoes, boiling thins the cell walls gelantizing the starch which appears to enhance bio-availability of its nutrients. This means the body has greater access to its nutrients. The glycemic index of a boiled sweet potato is also half that of a baked sweet potato which results in less of a blood sugar spike when consumed.
It is very important to keep the skin on when boiling sweet potatoes. The skin of the sweet potato contains ten times the antioxidant power of its flesh, and its antioxidant power is comparable to that of blueberries. Baking the sweet potato skin lowers the antioxidant power by two-thirds, and baking a sweet potato lowers vitamin A levels by eighty percent which is twice as much as boiling.
One thing I noticed was the comparisons were between boiling and baking, and steaming wasn’t mentioned though Dr. Greger considers boiling better than baking and steaming. I think the reasoning would be that it is necessary to substantially weaken the cell walls of the sweet potato to allow its nutrients to become more bio-available and more easily absorbed by the body.
Steaming may not substantially weaken the cell walls enough so its nutrients wouldn’t be as accessible to the body. Though the boiling process appears to be the best way to cook a sweet potato for health, you might want to drink the boiled water after it cools. Some water soluble vitamins are leached from the sweet potato during the boiling process and you can retain them by drinking the water.
If you are looking for healthy ways to cook sweet potatoes boiling appears to be the way to go. Support your healthy living with a plant based diet.
Tags: beta carotene, health, nutrition, sweet potato
