Sweet Potatoes

I love sweet potatoes plain nothing added, but I confess that I do like them even better with a couple of melted marshmallows on top! I thought that this information might spur us on to eat them more often since they are so good for  you.

 (Berkeley Wellness)
With Thanksgiving coming up, you may wonder what the difference is between a sweet potato and a yam. Is one more nutritious?
What are commonly called yams are actually sweet potatoes, which are not really potatoes at all, but storage roots, like carrots. (Real potatoes are storage stems, or tubers.) True yams belong to another plant family. You will seldom see a true yam in this country, except in specialty markets. Called njam and grown in Africa and the Caribbean, a yam is pale and starchy, with rough and scaly skin.

Sweet potatoes have darker reddish-brown skin and dark orange flesh. There are, however, at least four varieties, some with lighter skins, some with red-purple skins, and also variations in flesh color. (Canned sweet potatoes are often also labeled “yams,” since that’s what most people call them.)

Nutritionally, you’re way ahead with sweet potatoes. Their bright orange color comes from beta carotene, and a medium-size baked sweet potato contains about 10 milligrams (a hefty amount), plus about 
one-third of the daily recommended intake for vitamin C, some B vitamins, vitamin E, magnesium, and calcium—even more if you eat the skin. The true yam has no beta carotene and half the vitamin C.

In spite of their sweet flavor, sweet potatoes have the same number of calories as white potatoes, about 100 per 3.5-ounce serving. They can be quickly cooked in their skins in a microwave (pierce them first). They taste great on their own--though they often, unfortunately, get “candied”—laden with sugar, syrup, and marshmallows.