Are sweet and soft baked sweet potatoes healthy food?

8 must-know points about sweet potatoes

In winter, everyone will fall in love with hot roasted sweet potatoes
.
It's fragrant and sweet, and the gastronomic charm is hard to resist
.
However, when it comes to sweet potatoes, there are always some questions, common ones such as: will baked sweet potatoes produce a lot of acrylamide? Do baked sweet potatoes in an air fryer catch fire? What is the difference between purple sweet potatoes and sweet potatoes? Can raw sweet potatoes be digested? Is it better to eat steamed or grilled? Can diabetics eat baked sweet potatoes? Can you get fat eating baked sweet potatoes? I heard that sweet potatoes can't be eaten on an empty stomach? Here is the sweet potato related food knowledge to tell you
.

Knowledge Point 1:

What pigment brings the color of sweet potatoes?

Sweet potatoes belong to a type of
sweet potato.
Sweet potatoes come in a variety of skin and flesh colors, from pure white, pale yellow, orange-yellow to purple varieties, known as white potatoes, yellow potatoes, sweet potatoes and purple potatoes, and even purple and white intertwined flower potatoes
.
Yellow and orange colors come from carotenoids, specifically β-carotene; The purple color comes from anthocyanins, and in the anthocyanins, the type of cornflower pigment is the majority
.

Knowledge Point 2:

How much starch and sugar is in sweet potatoes?

There are many varieties of sweet potatoes, some are particularly rich in starch, the starch content is as high as nearly 30%, and the reducing sugar is relatively small, suitable for extracting starch and making vermicelli; Some starch content is between 10%-20%, and the reducing sugar content is relatively high, can reach 10%-20%, the taste is relatively sweet, such sweet potatoes
are suitable for fresh food.

Knowledge Point 3:

Why are sweet potatoes sweeter in winter?

Soluble sugars are those sugars that can be dissolved in water, including glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, lactose and other small molecule sugars, and even fructooligosaccharides
.
All sugar that makes people feel sweet is soluble in water
.
For fruits, vegetables and potatoes, the higher the soluble sugar content, the more delicious
it is.

In winter, due to the lower temperature, plants will break down a part of the starch into soluble sugars in order to increase osmotic pressure and resist the hazards
of low temperature and freezing.
Therefore, after sweet potatoes are stored for a period of time in autumn and winter, the sugar content will increase significantly compared to when they were just harvested, and baked sweet potatoes will be sweeter
.

Knowledge Point 4:

Can sweet potatoes be eaten raw? Is it easy to digest?

Carbohydrates in sweet potatoes, in addition to sugar, there is starch
.
From a digestive point of view, starch is usually divided into 3 parts: fast-digesting starch, slow-digesting starch and resistant starch
.

Fast-digesting starch can be digested by the body and can quickly raise blood sugar
.
For people with dyspepsia, fast-digesting starch reduces the burden on the digestive system and provides them with energy
faster.
But for people who need to control blood sugar, eating too much fast-digesting starch at once will be a great test
for blood sugar control.

Slow-digesting starch can also be digested and can slow release energy, but because the digestion rate is slow, the blood sugar rise rate is also slow, which is conducive to postprandial blood sugar stability
.

Resistant starch is likely not digested and absorbed in the small intestine, almost does not raise blood sugar, but enters the large intestine and is decomposed and utilized by microorganisms to produce gas and short-chain fatty acids
.
Small amounts of resistant starch have the benefit of improving intestinal flora and helping to control blood lipids, while large amounts of resistant starch may cause gas production, bloating, and indigestion
.

Raw sweet potatoes can also be eaten, and the reducing sugar in them can be digested, but because of the high content of resistant starch, the proportion of poorly digested ingredients is larger, and the blood sugar is less raised after meals, and eating too much will cause bloating problems
.

Knowledge Point 5:

Will the speed of sugar rise and nutrient content be different for different cooking methods of sweet potatoes?

Studies have found that steaming sweet potatoes with yellow meat for 35 minutes will slightly reduce the sugar content; Microwave heating for 5 minutes will increase the sugar content
.
Boiling also increases the sugar content, but because some of the sugar dissolves in the water, it doesn't feel as sweet
.
The researchers believe that microwave heating may promote the degradation of starch, producing more glucose and maltose
.

Therefore, when eating sweet potatoes cooked, most of the starch can be digested, plus the reducing sugars in them, will increase the blood sugar response
.
In contrast, when cooking and microwave cooking, the blood sugar may be raised faster
.

However, microwave cooking also has an unexpected benefit, with carotene levels nearly doubling
after cooking.
In fact, this is not a strange thing, because it is possible that the combination of carotene and protein is broken down after microwave cooking and can be better released from the cell, so the actual amount will increase
.

Knowledge Point 6:

What are the nutritional differences between sweet potatoes of different colors?

Studies have found that the taste and taste of sweet potatoes are positively correlated
with the content of β-carotene, protein and starch.
That is to say, for yellow-fleshed sweet potatoes, the more orange and yellow the color, the more delicious; For purple-fleshed sweet potatoes, the higher the anthocyanin content, the less delicious it is; The higher the sugar content, the tastier
it will be.

The analysis of the color and composition of 28 raw sweet potatoes showed that the total polyphenol content of purple sweet potato varieties was significantly higher than that of yellow meat varieties.
And sweet potatoes that eat orange-yellow potato flesh, like eating carrots, are a good way
to supplement carotene.

The assay also found that purple sweet potato had a strong inhibitory effect on trypsin activity, and the higher the polyphenol content, the more advanced
the inhibition of protease.
This can explain why purple sweet potatoes are prone to stomach congestion and bloating after eating too much, which is quite unfriendly
to patients with indigestion and gastrointestinal diseases.

Knowledge Point 7:

Do baked sweet potatoes produce carcinogens? How much acrylamide is contained?

Baked sweet potatoes, like baked potatoes, fried potatoes, etc.
, will produce acrylamide in cooking and processing at more than 120 degrees Celsius, of which 160-180 degrees Celsius has the largest
production of acrylamide.
And this temperature range is exactly the temperature
used when the food is baked and fried.
However, compared to french fries, baked sweet potatoes still have a much
lower acrylamide content.

Generally speaking, for the same food, the degree of Maillard reaction is relatively high, the yellow-brown color after cooking is heavier, the texture is more crispy, and the yield of acrylamide will be relatively large
.
Frying, oven, frying pan, air fryer, the same reason
.

Acrylamide is not a highly toxic substance, and when present in small amounts, it does not significantly affect health
.
Most residents in our country do not eat baked and fried dishes every day, nor eat baked pasta such as bread, biscuits, cakes and cakes every day, and occasionally eat a baked sweet potato is not worried
.

Knowledge Point 8:

Why do I eat sweet potato chips baked in an air fryer and feel dry mouth and sore throat?

There may be two main reasons for this "fire reaction":

First, the moisture content of baked food (including air fryer cooking) is low, and when eating, chewed dry food will absorb a large amount of saliva, oral mucosa and throat moisture, resulting in local dehydration of the mucosa, dry discomfort
.
Dry and hard food fragments are easy to cause small wounds to the mucosa, coupled with the decline in resistance after dehydration of the mucosa, it is easy to lead to bacterial infection and inflammation, and pain and discomfort
in the mouth and throat.

Second, baked food in the process of high temperature heating will produce substances that promote inflammatory response, referred to as "pro-inflammatory ingredients", the more crispy and burnt the roast, the higher
the content of these pro-inflammatory substances.
If the temperature is too high, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, oil oxidation polymerization products will also be produced, which are all things
that promote the inflammatory response.
Eating too much of the pro-inflammatory ingredients can also trigger acne or make acne worse
.

Finally, by the way, how to operate fast, delicious and healthy baked sweet potatoes, and some precautions:

1.
Bake the sweet potatoes until they produce aroma and yellow surface, do not bake them to the extent
that they are brown and crispy.

2.
Sweet potatoes are harmless
to cook in the microwave.
Cut the sweet potatoes into thick slices, put them in a container with a lid glass, ceramic, plastic box etc.
that can be microwaved, add a spoonful of water to generate steam, and then heat on high for 6-8 minutes to steam.

It is much faster than ordinary steamers, and it is operated regularly, so there is no need for people to take care of it
.

3.
First steam the sweet potatoes (ordinary pot steaming, or microwave steaming as above), then put them in the baking tray of the air fryer or oven, spread and bake
.
15-20 minutes in the air fryer at 180-200 degrees Celsius, or 30-45 minutes in the oven
.
In this way, you can quickly eat roasted sweet potatoes, which are sweeter and more delicious
than the traditional roasting method.

4.
For people who need to control blood sugar, it may be better to eat steamed
.
Compared with steamed sweet potatoes, baked sweet potatoes have a longer heating time, softer texture, fast digestion, high starch content, and are not conducive to blood sugar control
.

5.
The softer and sweeter the variety with high sugar content, the more sweet and soft it is roasted, and the faster
the blood sugar will rise after eating.
Roasted sweet potatoes cannot be used to replace whole grain beans
.

6.
People with excessive stomach acid should pay attention to eating less sweet potatoes, especially to avoid eating
a lot before meals.
With other staple foods and vegetables, it is still okay to eat a small amount at a time
.

In conclusion, every food has its own advantages and disadvantages, and sweet potatoes are no exception
.
What is the impact of eating on health, as long as you experience it carefully, the body will naturally tell you
.

(Beijing Youth Daily/Fan Zhihong, Director of Chinese Nutrition Society, Chief Expert of Science Communication Hired by China Association for Science and Technology)