Eating Healthy: Sweet Potato Leaves!

Eating Healthy: Sweet Potato Leaves!

A long favourite of mine – sweet potatoes are not only delicious, nutritious and exceptionally easy to prepare – they are also versatile. Prepared as a main dish or as a desert, it has a great nutritional profile.

One baked medium sweet potato provides 21,909 IU of vitamin A or more than double of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA), and it is a good source of complex carbohydrates (24 g), and fiber (4 g).

On average, sweet potato contains only 100 calories, but it provides 40% of the RDA for vitamin C, and is considered a good source of iron, vitamin B6 and potassium.

Although you will not have any problems finding sweet potatoes at your local supermarket or a health food store, its leaves are not easy to find. Why would you care anyway?

According to a new research from the University of Arkansas, sweet potato leaves are chock-full of disease-fighting antioxidants. In total, they contain 15 different compounds that could help prevent heart disease, diabetes, infection and some types of cancer.

Out of curiosity, I asked for sweet potato leaves at my local grocery store. I was ready for some blank stares, but to my surprise, I was not a first person to inquire about them.

Who could have thought that the word about potential health benefits of sweet potato leaves could spread so quickly? Or maybe I am behind the times…

Anyway, sweet potato leaves are just as versatile and easy to prepare as sweet potatoes. You can steam them as you would spinach or other leafy greens.