How to Eat Sweet Potatoes for Balanced Blood Sugar!
A couple years ago I made a video about potatoes but I continue to get this question asked: can I eat potatoes if I have diabetes? I say yes but you can watch that video for the fine print. Now more specifically people with diabetes are wondering if they can have sweetpotatoes - and don't be scared off by the word sweet with this potato! (By the way, it is written as all one word, “sweetpotato.”) Good news - this wonderful root is NOT off limits for people with diabetes.
I recently went on a North Carolina sweet potato farm tour and not only watched how sweetpotatoes are grown and harvested but also got to speak to some of the researchers about the health benefits for people with diabetes… this is what I learned:
First of all sweetpotatoes are a nutrition powerhouse! They contain vitamin A (remember that's good for the eye health), vitamin C (good for your immune system), iron (which helps with red blood cells carrying oxygen), potassium (which helps with heart health), and fiber (which can help you feel fuller and slow down the absorption of carbohydrate to help with balancing blood sugar levels).
They also have a lower glycemic index than other potatoes, and here's something I found out that many people don't know - we should be eating the skin of the potato to help lower the glycemic index and increase our fiber intake. This will help to blunt the rise in your blood sugar.
Let's look at the portion of sweetpotato: one medium sweetpotato is equal to about 103 calories, 24 grams of carbohydrate, and almost 4 grams of fiber. Side by side, a sweet potato has less calories, less carbs, and more fiber than a white potato - that's sweet! To help navigate the size of potato and grams of carbs, I just grabbed my food scale to do a quick check-in for the ounces. By doing this it also helps me eyeball the portion when I'm out to eat. I use the equation of 5 grams of carb per ounce, so what you're seeing here in the video above is a 30 gram portion.
So the answer is yes, you can eat sweet potatoes! We now know how to fit them into our eating plan and remember to check out my video on sweet potato peanut stew. It's a definitely a comfort food at my house… and make sure you leave the skin on that sweetpotato when you make the stew. Until next time, cheers to your health.