The marshmallows notwithstanding, sweet potatoes are one of the healthiest foods on your Thanksgiving table. They’re full of nutrients that keep your systems humming and your blood sugar steady, and they can even reduce your cancer risk.
Here are some of the ways sweet potatoes benefit your body, along with ideas from New York Times Cooking for how to prepare them on Thanksgiving Day, and every day.
They’re a natural source of electrolytes.
Sweet potatoes are a good source of potassium, an electrolyte that you sweat out when you exercise. The body relies on potassium, which carries a charge, to send electrical signals between nerves, said Holly Gilligan, a registered dietitian at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Fitness Science program. Potassium helps to keep your nerves firing, your heart beating and your muscles contracting. One medium cooked sweet potato contains around 350 milligrams of potassium — about 12 percent of the recommended daily amount for an average adult and more than six times what you get in a 12-ounce bottle of Gatorade.
Potassium also helps you maintain a healthy blood pressure. “The body is constantly trying to keep potassium in balance with another electrolyte: sodium,” said Dave Bridges, a biochemist and associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan. Sodium causes the body to hold onto fluids, increasing the volume of our blood; if there’s too much sodium, blood pressure can become unhealthily high, he explained. Potassium stimulates the kidneys to excrete sodium and also causes blood vessels to relax.
They won’t spike your blood sugar.
Sweet potatoes get their signature flavor from naturally occurring sugars; one medium sweet potato has around nine grams. “For some context, that’s about a quarter of what you would find in a regular soda,” Dr. Bridges said.