Healthy Mashed Sweet Potatoes (2024)

FAQs

Is mashed sweet potato good for you? ›

May support heart health

Being a rich source of potassium, sweet potatoes help promote a healthy heart. Higher potassium intake helps manage sodium levels and as a result promotes healthier blood pressure, which may reduce your risk of heart disease.

Boiling sweet potatoes retains more beta-carotene and makes the nutrient more absorbable than other cooking methods such as baking or frying. Up to 92% of the nutrient can be retained by limiting the cook time, such as boiling in a pot with a tightly covered lid for 20 minutes.

Mashed Sweet Potato (1 cup, mashed) contains 58.1g total carbs, 49.9g net carbs, 0.5g fat, 4.5g protein, and 249 calories.

Though they can both be part of a healthy diet, sweet potatoes are generally healthier than regular potatoes, partly because of their incredibly high vitamin A content. Sweet potatoes are also lower on the glycemic index, meaning that they are less likely than regular potatoes to make your blood sugar spike.

If you enjoy sweet potatoes, you can absolutely enjoy them daily. However, eating multiple sweet potatoes every day could cause a harmless condition called carotenodermia, where your skin turns yellow-orange. You may also want to be cautious about your sweet potato intake if you have a history of kidney stones.

They're high in fiber and antioxidants, which protect your body from free radical damage and promote a healthy gut and brain. They're also incredibly rich in beta carotene, which is converted to vitamin A to support good vision and your immune system.

Baking can also cause an 80% drop in vitamin A levels, twice as much as boiling. Therefore, from a nutritional standpoint, boiling rather than baking should be recommended for cooking sweet potato.

Potatoes also have vitamin C, unlike rice. Plus, potatoes contain three times more minerals than rice, such as phosphorus, potassium and magnesium when you leave the skin on. Sweet potatoes on the other hand are even healthier than the standard potato, containing as much as twice the high amounts of vitamin!

The Bottom Line

You can eat sweet potato skin. It's a good source of fiber, a nutrient that may help lower the risk of heart disease and keep you feeling full for longer periods of time. The next time you make a sweet potato dish, whether it's a roasted side dish or a hearty, cozy casserole, leave the peel on.

Savory sweet potato mash can easily be served with any main — roast chicken, slow cooker roast turkey, crispy roast pork and prime rib. They are so versatile you can serve them right along your Green Bean Casserole, Mac and Cheese, Roast Potatoes or Roast Broccoli.

How do you thicken mashed sweet potatoes? ›

Forget what the mixer chick said, make your mashed sweet potatoes like you would normal mashed potato, then heat up a frying pan/skillet until it's super hot, add a bit of oil or butter as extra lubricant, and throw some mash in it, it will evaporate some moisture and make it thicker, plus give it a slight toasty ...

Sweet potatoes are known to be high in fiber and have a low glycemic index, which results in a less immediate impact on blood glucose levels. This can help people with diabetes keep their blood sugar levels in check. Sweet potatoes can be: Baked or microwaved.

In a nutrition battle between a banana and sweet potato, the sweet potato would come out ahead. A baked sweet potato has the same calories per gram as a banana, yet has one gram more fiber and five grams less sugar per medium serving.

Sweet potatoes earned the name "superfood" because of the amount of nutrients they have. Studies show they may help with: Cancer. Carotenoids in sweet potatoes might lower your risk for cancer.

It is totally fine to eat potatoes every day. While how you prepare and cook potatoes and how much you eat could possibly impact your health, whole potatoes with skin are a nutritious vegetable with health benefits.

Sweet potatoes are the perfect example of a carbohydrate that's high-nutrient and low in sugar, sodium and saturated fat. It's exactly what diabetes experts recommend fill up one-quarter of your plate at mealtimes.

One small sweet potato contains half the calories as a piece of toast. Vitamins A and C don't even register on the charts for bread, while sweet potatoes offer a good source of vitamin C and some potassium.