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Sweet potato is a health vegetable rich in antioxidants and other nutrients useful in maintaining a healthy body.
According new researches conducted by the Rural Development Administration (RDA) of South Korea sweet potato contains antioxidants such as chlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic.
Antioxidants, known as the modern-day anti-aging nutrients, are phytochemicals or substances (mostly present in fruits and vegetables), which neutralize or counterbalance the free radicals that are generated by the body during normal metabolism.
Free radicals are the most vicious and toxic by-products of metabolism. When not neutralized, they can travel through the body cells, disrupting the structures of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and cause cell damages.
These damages are believed to contribute to aging and degenerative diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cataract, and the like.
Sweet potato antioxidants are higher in the leaves than in the tops, but higher in the tops than in the roots and petioles.
Also, all parts of sweet potato, especially the leaves and tops, contain protein, lipids, carbohydrates, calcium, iron, phosphorus, and vitamin A and C.
These nutrients are favorably comparable with those of other vegetable nutrients when they are boiled or used in their dry form than when they are consumed raw.
One medium size sweet potato contains almost twice the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, 42 percent of the recommendation for vitamin C, four times the RDA for beta carotene, and, when eaten with the skin, sweet potatoes have more fiber than oatmeal. All these benefits with only about 130 to 160 calories!