Potatoes are the world’s most widely consumed food crop, after only rice, wheat, and maize (corn) in terms of human consumption. Potatoes were first cultivated about 10,000 years ago in South America.

Now the cultivation of this versatile tuber has spread all over Europe, Asia, and Africa in the last five centuries. Potatoes are presently grown in more than 160 countries, with a global average per capita consumption of 33 kg per year.

Sweet Potato Facts

Sweet potatoes come in a variety of shapes and sizes. With an annual global production of almost 100 million tonnes, sweet potato is one of the most major food crops in tropical and subtropical countries. Even though sweet potato originated in the tropical Americas, Asian countries today produce around 75% of this crop. Sweet potato has the best energy yield per hectare of any of the major food crops grown in poorer nations. It has a high tolerance for poor weather and growing circumstances. Sweet potato storage roots are an essential source of nourishment, particularly in underdeveloped nations, because they are high in vitamins and minerals and contain a lot of starch.

Regular Potatoes vs. Sweet Potatoes

Although both sweet and ordinary potatoes are tuberous root vegetables, they differ in nutrition, appearance, and flavor. They come from different plant groups, provide different nutrients, and have varied effects on your blood sugar.

Sweet potatoes are usually brown in color with orange flesh, although they can also be purple, yellow, or red. Regular Potatoes come in a variety of colors, including brown, yellow, and red, and contain white or yellow skin. Below we have featured some very important aspects to when you might meal plan or create a nutrition label for your sweet potatoes products.

Regular Potatoes Nutritional Value (100gm)

Nutrient	Raw (Flesh and Skin)	Boiled (Flesh Only) and Cooked without skin	Boiled (Flesh Only) Cooked with Skin	Baked (Flesh and Skin)	Microwaved (Flesh and Skin)
Energy	77	86	87	93	105
Protein	2.1	1.7	1.9	2.5	2.4
Carbohydrates	17.5	20.0	20.1	21.2	24.2
Fat	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Fibre	2.1	1.8	1.8	2.2	2.3
Water	79.3	77.5	77.0	74.9	72.0

Sweet Potatoes Nutritional Value (100gm)

Nutrient	Fresh Potatoes	Flour Dried	Unpeeled (With Skin)	Pealed (Without Skin)	Dry Weight	Wet Base
Energy	112 (for a potato of 130gm)	NR	373.97	373.05	344.52	NR
Protein	3.69	4.80	2.84	2.48	1.44-2.50	1.9-2.7
Carbohydrate	90.17	90.13	86.72	88.01	24-33	18-26
Fat	0.42	0.39	1.00	1.12	0.19	1.1-1.7
Fibre	3.68	2.57	4.52	3.83	NR	3.0-3.6
Water	69.42	10.97	76.97	74.84	65-70	71-73

Sweet Potatoes Calories for Weight Loss

Weight Loss Because of High Fibre Content of Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are high in fiber, which might aid in weight loss and belly fat reduction. Sweet potatoes’ high fiber content makes you feel ‘full’ after a meal, which helps you keep to a calorie-restricted diet. Resistant starch is another type of fiber found in the root vegetable. A diet high in resistant starch has been shown in several trials to help reduce the risk of obesity. Sweet potatoes help avoid constipation and promote smooth digestion because of their high fiber content.

Fiber is also prebiotic, which means it provides food for the good bacteria in your stomach. When these bacteria are in good health, they can allow more effective management of your blood sugar levels, thereby reducing hunger and food cravings. Meaning sweet potatoes are a fantastic addition to your meal planning strategy.

Weight Loss Because of Satiety Effect of Sweet Potatoes

When eaten as part of a healthy balanced diet, an equal amount of potato (even white potatoes) may be more filling than rice or pasta. This makes perfect sense considering sweet potatoes and white potatoes have fewer calories than rice and pasta, allowing you to consume a little more for the same calorie intake. So substituting potato or sweet potato for other starchy carbs is a quick and easy approach to cut calories while staying fuller.

Weight Management Due to Reduced Calorie Intake of SP

Sweet potatoes are very low in calories, so they can be included in a weight-loss diet. Sweet potatoes are said to have about 86 calories per 100 g and roughly 100 calories per dish. However, a roughly equivalent amount (100 g) of peeled potato contains approximately 110 calories per serving, or 400 calories total. Sweet potatoes do have high water content, which is another reason they are good weight-loss food. On the glycemic index scale, they are also considered low. According to research, diabetics who consume sweet potatoes have fewer low blood sugar episodes and have less insulin resistance. A great recommendation is to use a calorie calculator when deciding the next steps your client should take.

Maintaining Weight by Controlling Blood Sugar Level from Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes, when boiling, don’t raise your blood sugar as much as other starchy carbs like bread, rice, or pasta do because of their fiber, as well as the small amount of protein and fat they supply. If they’re baked or roasted, though, this isn’t true.

This is important because the hormone insulin regulates your blood sugar levels. When your blood sugar levels rise, your insulin levels rise in response, bringing your blood sugar levels back down (which causes your body to store all that excess sugar as body fat).

Your body may begin to ignore insulin over time, requiring higher doses of insulin to achieve the same blood sugar-lowering impact. Insulin resistance is a condition that has been related to not only weight gain but also types two diabetes and heart disease.

Maintaining a smooth blood sugar level helps to ensure that your insulin and other hormone levels are where they need to be to prevent you from gaining weight.

Some Other Health Benefits of Sweet Potatoes over Regular Potatoes 

• The antioxidant and fiber-rich nature of sweet potatoes is beneficial for a healthy gut, and they promote the growth of healthy and good gut bacteria. 
• Extract of sweet potato peels and that of orange sweet potatoes have been reported to offer anti-cancerous effects due to the presence of antioxidants in them. 
• Sweet potatoes have a high amount of beta carotenes in them, and in the body, these beta carotenes are transformed to Vitamin A and also used in the making of the light-detecting receptor of the eye. Thus, all of this helps in improved vision and better eye health. 
• Sweet potatoes also have the ability to somehow enhancing brain health by decreasing chances of inflammation and thus prevent mental decline. 
• As described earlier, sweet potatoes are a rich source of beta carotenes which are converted to Vitamin A. This Vitamin A promotes healthy immune function and enables it to fight properly against infections. 

All nutritional values and nutrition labels used can be created using the nutrition label software found here.

References: 

Camire, M.E., Kubow, S. and Donnelly, D.J., 2009. Potatoes and human health. Critical reviews in food science and nutrition, 49(10), pp.823-840. 

King, J.C. and Slavin, J.L., 2013. White potatoes, human health, and dietary guidance. Advances in nutrition, 4(3), pp.393S-401S.

de Albuquerque, T.M.R., Sampaio, K.B. and de Souza, E.L., 2019. Sweet potato roots: unrevealing an old food as a source of health-promoting bioactive compounds–A review. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 85, pp.277-286.

King, J.C. and Slavin, J.L., 2013. White potatoes, human health, and dietary guidance. Advances in nutrition, 4(3), pp.393S-401S.

Robertson, T.M., Alzaabi, A.Z., Robertson, M.D. and Fielding, B.A., 2018. Starchy carbohydrates in a healthy diet: the role of the humble potato. nutrients, 10(11), p.1764.

Neela, S. and Fanta, S.W., 2019. Review on nutritional composition of orange‐fleshed sweet potato and its role in management of vitamin A deficiency. Food science & nutrition, 7(6), pp.1920-1945.

Tanaka, M., Ishiguro, K., Oki, T. and Okuno, S., 2017. Functional components in sweet potato and their genetic improvement. Breeding science, p.16125.