Sweet Potatoes: American Nourishment for Thousands of Years

Evidence from a Peruvian cave indicates that sweet potatoes have been eaten by people for at least 10,000 years. When Columbus landed in the Caribbean Islands, he found people eating sweet potatoes and he brought them back to Europe.

By the 16th century, the Spanish had spread sweet potatoes to the Philippines and the Portuguese had spread them to southern Asia and Africa.

Around this time cultivation of sweet potatoes became common in the Southern United States. Enslaved Africans working on plantations noticed the similarities between the sweet potatoes and a food they had in Africa called nyami or anyinam. They began calling sweet potatoes yams. The name yam became common, although the yams in Africa are actually from a different plant.

I have always loved sweet potatoes, so at lunch today I was browsing through the whole foods bakery when I found enticing loaves of sweet potato bread. I must admit that I bought a loaf...I didn't bake it myself. I brought the loaf home and everyone loved it. It is slightly sweet because there is some sugar in it, and it has a wonderful texture as you can see in the picture on the right.

There is a great recipe for sweet potato bread at http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/08/bread-baking-sweet-potato-bread.html. I hope to try baking some soon.

Nutritionally, sweet potatoes have a lot to offer.They are rich in vitamins A and C and manganese, copper, dietary fiber, vitamin B6, potassium and iron. They have anti-inflammatory qualities and contain proteins with significant antioxidant effects.


You can find out more about their health effects at http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=64.