Victoria's Secret Angel Lily Aldridge once confessed to being addicted to roasted chicken and sweet potatoes. Kendall Jenner, preparing for her first Victoria's Secret Fashion Show said that she dined on 'chicken and sweet potato and egg whites and avocado'. IMG model Danielle Copperman is quoted from her food diary: "If you are home for dinner, make a plain meal of meat or fish, green vegetables and either quinoa, brown rice or sweet potato. If you are out for dinner, choose something with a mixture of protein and complex carbohydrates, and avoid anything with wheat or simple carbohydrates which will make you feel bloated and sluggish. You want loads of energy to do it all again tomorrow!"
Despite such endorsements from The Beautiful Ones, the humble sweet potato has yet to gain the same amount of love and popularity among the rest of America. The snub is apparently deliberate as this root crop has been associated with the poorer days of a young America. While this treasure hid - grew - beneath American soil, the populace craved food that were perceived to be 'for the wealthy'.
A sad miss to be sure as sweet potatoes are among the best food sources for energy and nutrients. According to World's Healthiest Food: "Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene). They are also a very good source of vitamin C, manganese, copper, pantothenic acid, and vitamin B6. Additionally, they are a good source of potassium, dietary fiber, niacin, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, and phosphorus." It has great blood sugar regulating properties that benefit diabetics.
JamieOliver.com adds: "The most prominent nutrient in sweet potatoes is vitamin C: one large sweet potato contains more than 70% of our reference intake, more than double that of white potatoes! Vitamin C's roles in the human body are vast: aside from the well-known immune system boost, vitamin C is required to maintain our teeth and gums, cell protection, psychological function, nervous system function and it also enhances our ability to absorb iron."
In some countries as the Philippines, giving boiled sweet potato leaves or tops to dengue fever patients is an effective way to restore blood platelet count to healthy levels.
China and India are two other countries, which production of sweet potatoes surpass the annual 1 million-tonne output by the US.
