This One Preparation Method Is Doubling The Glycemic Index Of Your Sweet Potato

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Sweet potatoes are a popular, relatively healthy choice around the country. They are full of fiber, potassium, iron, vitamins and many sources show they are healthier than an ordinary potato. How could anything take away from their nutritional value?

The Glycemic Index In A Nutshell

The glycemic index (GI) of a food is essentially a measure of how much sugar they will produce in your blood after you eat them.

The lower the GI, the healthier that a food is likely to be for you. Aside from higher sugar levels in you blood, high GI foods make you stressed and could cause you to overeat.

How Are You Doubling A Sweet Potato’s GI?

Sweet potatoes are full of starch. Starch is a very complex molecule made up of lots of sugar molecules. When they’re bound together, these molecules can’t get into your bloodstream.

When you bake a sweet potato, you are keeping the potato at a high heat for a long time. This provides a long time for the starch to break down, something it does at high heat, and turn back into sugar; sugar that can get into your bloodstream.

While you do get some starch breakdown if you microwave or boil sweet potatoes, it happens more when you bake them. This is because microwaving and boiling tend to take much less time.

Please, don’t stop eating sweet potatoes; they’re still good for you. However, next time try to microwave or steam them rather than bake them to keep their GI down for maximum health benefits.