Can teething sweet potatoes be eaten?

Some friends think that sprouted sweet potatoes are inedible because they will produce toxins just like potatoes. In fact, sweet potato sprouts are different from potato sprouts. Sweet potatoes will not produce toxins after sprouting, but water and nutrients will be lost, so the taste and flavor will be different. Sprouted sweet potatoes can actually be cooked in other ways to avoid affecting the taste too much.

1. Can sweet potatoes still be eaten after they sprout?

After sweet potatoes sprout, they do not produce harmful substances like potatoes. As long as the sprouts on the sweet potatoes are removed, they can be eaten, and the legendary poisoning symptoms will not appear. But there is one thing everyone should pay attention to. After the sweet potatoes sprout, they lose a large amount of nutrients and water. Not only will they taste bad, but they will also lose their edible value. As for the claim that eating sprouted sweet potatoes can cause poisoning, there is no basis for this claim, it is unscientific, and is purely a misunderstanding in life. Nutritionists believe that sweet potatoes are not only a nutritious food, but also can have therapeutic effects on many diseases. There are many benefits of eating sweet potatoes, but you must use scientific methods.

Although sweet potatoes can be eaten after they sprout, they cannot be eaten if the skin has brown or black spots. This is because they are contaminated by black spot bacteria. The toxins excreted by the black spot bacteria contain sweet potato ketone and sweet potato ketone alcohol, which make the sweet potato hard and bitter, and are highly toxic to the human liver. Even if this toxin is boiled or roasted, its biological activity will not be destroyed. After consumption, symptoms usually appear within 24 hours, with gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. In severe cases, there may be high fever, headache, asthma, confusion, vomiting blood, coma, and even death.

2. Why do sweet potatoes become sweeter after being stored for a long time?

After sweet potatoes are stored for a long time, their moisture content is reduced a lot and wrinkles appear on the skin. The reduction of water has a great impact on the increase of sweetness for two reasons: First, the evaporation of water is reduced, which relatively increases the concentration of sugar in sweet potatoes. Second, during the storage process, water participates in the hydrolysis reaction of the starch in the sweet potato, and the starch is hydrolyzed into sugar, which increases the sugar content in the sweet potato. Therefore, we feel that sweet potatoes that have been stored for a long time are sweeter than those that have just been dug out of the ground.

3. Health benefits of sweet potatoes

1. Weight loss and beauty

Will eating sweet potatoes make people fat? According to scientific research, eating sweet potatoes will not make people fat. On the contrary, sweet potatoes are an ideal weight-loss food. It has a very low calorie content, much lower than ordinary rice, so you don’t have to worry about gaining weight after eating it. On the contrary, it can help you lose weight. Sweet potatoes also contain a substance similar to estrogen, which plays a certain role in protecting human skin and delaying aging. Therefore, many women abroad regard sweet potatoes as beauty foods.

2. Anti-cancer

The most anti-cancer nutrients in the diet are beta-carotene (a precursor of vitamin A), vitamin C and folic acid, and sweet potatoes are rich in all three. A small sweet potato (about 2 taels) can provide twice the amount of vitamin A required by the human body every day, one-third of the daily amount of vitamin C required, and about 50 micrograms of folic acid; the dietary fiber content is higher than that of a bowl of oatmeal porridge. Eating sweet potatoes regularly helps maintain normal folic acid levels in the body. Too low folic acid levels in the body will increase the risk of cancer. The high content of dietary fiber in sweet potatoes can promote gastrointestinal motility, prevent constipation and colorectal cancer.

3. Good for the Heart

Sweet potatoes are rich in potassium, beta-carotene, folic acid, vitamin C and vitamin B6, all of which help prevent cardiovascular disease. Potassium helps maintain fluid and electrolyte balance in the body's cells and maintain normal blood pressure and heart function. β-carotene and vitamin C have the effects of anti-lipid oxidation and preventing atherosclerosis. Supplementation of folic acid and vitamin B6 can help lower the level of homocysteine ​​in the blood, which can damage arteries and is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease.