Sweet potato nutrition facts

Sweet potato, not only is just sweet to your taste buds but also good for your cardiovascular health. This starchy root vegetable is rich source of flavonoid anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber that are essential for optimal health.

Botanically, this tuber belongs to the family of Convolvulaceae, and named botanically as Ipomoea batatas.

It is grown throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions. The crop requires just sufficient water and attention for their cultivation. The tuberous root has oblong/elongated shape with tapering ends and has smooth outer skin whose color ranges from red, purple, brown, and white, depending up on the variety. 

Sweet potatoes should not be confused with yams, another starchy root commonly grown in Western Africa. Yams are indeed larger in size that can grow up to 120 pounds in weight and up to 2 meters in length. Yams are the tropical crops and never grow where the temperature dips below 68 degrees F. Important differentiating features that distinguish sweet potatoes from yams are:

• Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are dicotyledonous, relatively smaller and possess very thin peel.
  
• Whereas, yams are monocotyledons, larger, features thick, rough, dark brown to pink skin depending up on cultivar type.
  

Internally, it has starchy flesh which, depending upon the pigments concentration, ranges from white through yellow, orange, and purple.

Boniatos, also known as Cuban sweet potatoes, feature dry, starchy flesh underneath the reddish brown skin. They have mildly sweet flavor and coked in a similar way like potatoes.

Sweet potato leaves (top greens) are also edible; in fact, the greens contain more nutrients and dietary fiber than some green leafy vegetables like spinach (for example, 100 g sweet potato leaves provide 1028 IU of vitamin A).