According to the Mayo Clinic , people with a history of kidney stones may want to avoid eating too many sweet potatoes, as the vegetable contains oxalate, which contributes to the forming of calcium-oxalate kidney stones.
Sweet potatoes and yams are often used interchangeably in recipes, but in fact the two vegetables are not even related. Sweet potatoes are members of the morning glory family, while yams are closely related to lilies and grasses, according the Harvard T.
Yams are native to Africa and Asia, and there are more than varieties. They are also starchier and drier than sweet potatoes.
Why the confusion? According to the Library of Congress website Everyday Mysteries , sweet potato varieties are classified as either "firm" or "soft. When soft varieties were first grown commercially, there was a need to differentiate the two kinds. African slaves began calling the soft sweet potatoes "yams" because they resembled the yams they knew in Africa. Today, the U. Department of Agriculture requires labels with the term "yam" to be accompanied by the term "sweet potato.
Sweet potatoes are more nutritious than yams. For example, the vitamin C content increases from That's 33 percent DV for vitamin C in just one serving. Vitamin A is essential for your immune function, reproduction and cellular communication.
It is probably best known for supporting good vision, but vitamin A also plays a crucial role in the normal formation and maintenance of your organs, including your heart, lungs and kidneys.
Sweet potatoes contain an extremely high amount of vitamin A with milligrams per serving. Dietary Guidelines recommends a daily intake of milligrams for adult women and milligrams for men, so one serving of sweet potato will pretty much meet your daily value.
You might be wondering if so much vitamin A can be harmful. You need not worry. Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are one of the top sources of beta carotene — a precursor to vitamin A — with 9, micrograms per grams. Beta carotene is a provitamin A carotenoid. Your body converts this plant pigment into an active form of vitamin A that can be used for metabolic functions or stored in your liver. Although vitamin A from animal sources can cause toxicity with excessive intake, large amounts of beta carotene and other provitamin A carotenoids are not associated with any health risks.
If you eat a lot of sweet potatoes in addition to taking a vitamin A supplement over a long period of time, the most significant effect would be carotenodermia. This is a harmless condition that causes the skin to become yellow-orange and is reversible once you discontinue eating the beta carotene in sweet potatoes or other foods. There is some concern that the high amount of dietary oxalate in sweet potatoes may contribute to the development of calcium-oxalate kidney stones, the most common type of kidney stone.
Oxalates are natural substances found in many foods, including fruits and vegetables. These foods are nutrient dense and healthy, containing vitamins, minerals and fiber. According to a report in in the journal Clinical Nutrition Research , high-oxalate foods are safe for patients with diabetes, hypertension and high blood cholesterol.
However, in patients that have developed kidney stones, the recommendation is to change to a diet lower in oxalate content. Oxalates normally bind to calcium during digestion and are excreted in your stool. If oxalates are not bound to calcium in the stomach or intestines, they travel as waste to your kidneys where they can leave the body with urine.
However, if there is too much oxalate and not enough liquid in the urine, the result is the creation of calcium-oxalate fragments. These fragments can stick together and form a larger crystal known as a kidney stone, according to the National Kidney Foundation NKF.
The NKF suggests that you can reduce your risk of developing kidney stones by drinking lots of fluids and eating calcium and oxalate-rich foods together during a meal. This would help ensure that oxalate and calcium bind to one another in the stomach before being processed by the kidneys, making it less likely that stones will form.
Sweet potatoes naturally contain calcium. Nutrition Fruits and Vegetables Sweet Potatoes. Jill Corleone is a registered dietitian with more than 20 years of experience. Gord Kerr. Gordon Kerr has worked in the health care industry for the past 15 years. In fact, these studies show that overdoing it on vitamin A supplements lead to vitamin A toxicity, not from food, according to Harvard Health.
That sweet potato is still perfectly fine for your body to digest, and as already mentioned, it can do a lot for your body. The only side effect of eating too many sweet potatoes at once would be discolored yellow skin. But we have a feeling you'll likely eat the right portion of sweet potatoes at a time.
A cup of cubed sweet potatoes, or one medium-sized sweet potato, usually is about one serving for a person. That small potato really can do a lot for your body! By Kiersten Hickman. Read more. Read This Next. More in Healthy Eating.
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