5 Healthiest Methods to Eat Candy Potatoes, In response to Dietitians

Filled with potassium and nutritional vitamins A and C, candy potatoes are as nutritious as they’re versatile. With the season in full swing, right here’s how dietitians mentioned they suggest making ready them for optimum well being advantages.

In comparison with many greens, candy potatoes are wealthy in carbohydrates, containing round 9 grams of sugar in a medium-sized spud. However when you’re trying to scale back a possible blood sugar spike—particularly when you have prediabetes or kind 2 diabetes—boiling them might assist, mentioned Seema Shah, MPH, MS, RD.

“Boiling candy potatoes can decrease their glycemic index,” she defined, referring to the speed at which a meals raises blood sugar.

When candy potatoes are boiled, a number of the starches break down, selling the formation of resistant starch, which slows sugar absorption and will assist with blood sugar management.

One simple thought: flip boiled candy potatoes right into a blended soup. Shah recommends combining them with carrots, onion, celery, and broth. “After boiling all of the substances down and mixing it, I add in numerous seasonings and a splash of coconut milk,” she instructed Well being.

Roasting stands out as a cooking technique that enhances candy potatoes’ pure dessert-like high quality—with out including any sugar.

“I want roasting candy potatoes as a result of it caramelizes them greater than the opposite strategies, serving to deliver out the pure sweetness,” Sarah Schlichter, MPH, RDN, dietitian of report with the North Carolina Sweetpotato Fee, instructed Well being. Cooking at excessive temperatures, round 400°F or larger, causes chemical reactions that flip a few of candy potatoes’ starches into sugars.

Roasting in wholesome oils like olive or avocado additionally provides monounsaturated fat—the sort related to cardiovascular advantages resembling decrease ldl cholesterol and a diminished threat of coronary heart illness and stroke.

Candy potato pores and skin may not at all times make it into widespread recipes, but it surely’s fully edible—and value maintaining. In truth, Shah recommends leaving it on for an additional enhance of fiber and vitamins. Per 100 grams, candy potato with pores and skin incorporates 3.3 grams of fiber, in comparison with 2.5 grams in the identical quantity of peeled flesh. The pores and skin additionally offers additional magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium.

In the event you’re not eager on consuming the entire tuber with pores and skin, strive leaving it on smaller items as a substitute. Roasted, unpeeled candy potato chunks seasoned to your style could also be a extra pleasurable approach to get pleasure from the advantages.

The broad, lengthy form of candy potatoes makes them a really perfect car for stuffing with different wholesome substances. Begin by baking a candy potato till tender. When cool sufficient to deal with, registered dietitian Caroline Thomason Bunn, RD, recommends filling it together with your favourite protein, different greens, and good-for-you fat like sliced avocado or a sprinkle of cheese.

Stuffing your tubers with minimally processed meals will deliver probably the most advantages—analysis reveals a food plan of largely entire meals improves cardiometabolic well being and promotes weight reduction.

If you assume “smoothie,” candy potatoes may not be the primary ingredient that involves thoughts—however they really pair higher than you’d anticipate, Sclichter famous.