Benefits of Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes have become one of my favorite foods and luckily, they are super nutritious and a great endo friendly food 🙂

Check out some of the health benefits of sweet potatoes:

• Excellent source of beta-carotene – a powerful antioxidant
• Raise blood levels of vitamin A – a definite benefit as many women with endometriosis are deficient in this important vitamin
• Sweet potatoes produce sporamins, which promote healing
• Good source of vitamin C, manganese, vitamins B6 and B5, potassium and fiber
• Contain vitamin D – an important immune system component 
• Good source of Iron – a definite benefit for endometriosis which often times includes heavy bleeding
• Contain nutrients that help regulate blood sugar
• Anti-inflammatory 

In order to take advantage of the sweet potato’s full beta-carotene, antioxidant properties, it is important to eat them with some fat.

Also important to note — sweet potatoes are pretty high in oxalates, which when eaten in excess contribute to kidney stones. So include them in moderation 🙂

Sweet and Spicy Nachos Recipe

This recipe incorporates sweet potatoes and has quickly became one of my favorites 🙂 I think the mix of sweet and spicy provides a nice balanced pallet. I make this to feed myself, so if you want to feed others then just up the amount of ingredients.

I recommend buying the ingredients organic if you can, but the good thing about sweet potatoes and avocados is they are some of the least pesticide sprayed foods so not as big of a deal if you must buy conventionally grown ones.

Ingredients:

• 1 sweet potato
• 1 mashed avocado
• 1 chopped jalapeno
• 3 chopped green onions
• juice from 1/2 a lime
• 1/4 tsp mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt
• dash of cayenne pepper
• sea salt to taste
• black pepper to taste
• grapeseed oil or coconut oil to grease the pan

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray it with either grapeseed oil or coconut oil
3. Slice the sweet potato into thin slices and arrange them on the cookie sheet, add sea salt to taste
4. Put this in the oven and cook for 25 – 30 minutes (until the slices are crispy)
5. While this cooks, combine the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl
6. When the sweet potato slices are done transfer them to a plate and top with the avocado mixture

On the Positive Side?

Since cutting gluten and dairy from my diet, I do get inklings sometimes for certain kinds of foods and I admit that nachos are one of those things 🙂 The recipe above has helped a bit to fill this missing meal.

Who knew that sweet potatoes and avocado are so delicious together? I don’t think I would know had I not stepped out of the box and got a little creative with what I can eat 🙂 This is a much healthier version of the nachos that I used to eat.

To keep it even simpler, sometimes I just bake the sweet potato and top it with coconut oil and cinnamon. Sweet potatoes help fill my carbohydrate needs and its subtle sweetness helps curb my sugar cravings.

Do you have any sweet potato recipes to share? I’d love to hear from you.

Much love,
Aubree.