Potatoes are the most widely consumed vegetable on the planet. Because they’re easily accessible and filling, they’re the basis for many cultural meals worldwide.
They’re also highly adaptable: they can be baked, roasted, fried, served, and prepared in various ways.
Because of the presence of many acids, potatoes are acidic. The content of these acids varies among potato varieties depending on their geographical location, soil type, fertilizer application, and other factors.
This is also why different potato species have diverse tastes, characteristics, and nutritional qualities.
Potatoes are also high in carbs and numerous critical vitamins, including vitamin C, B, and D, the same as minerals like calcium and potassium.
According to Dr. Sebi, starchy foods should be cooked at lower temperatures to preserve nutrients and reduce the production of acrylamide.
Acrylamide is a carcinogenic molecule produced by the Maillard reaction, a chemical reaction that changes the flavor and color of food when cooked.
Sweet potatoes are often referred to as “Ipomoea batatas” in the scientific community.
They are likewise tuberous roots that belong to the Convolvulaceae family.
They are distantly related to ordinary potatoes, as they both belong to the Kingdom Plantae’s Solanales order.
Are sweet potatoes acid or alkaline-forming?
Sweet potatoes have a pH of between 5.3 and 5.9. This means they’re moderately acidic, much like regular potatoes, and turn alkaline when digested, just like standard potatoes.
Although they are high in vitamins like vitamin A and vitamin C and minerals like manganese, potassium, and phosphorus, because they have high starch content, they may not be all that healthy.
In addition, the cooking process, especially frying lowers their pH, making them more acidic and unsuitable for an alkaline diet.
Potatoes vs. Sweet Potato Alkalinity
Potatoes have a pH range of 5.6 to 6.1, meaning that they are mildly acidic in nature.
Acids account for 0.4–1% of the fresh weight of potatoes. Citric acid, malic acid, phosphoric acid, glutamic acid, oxalic acid, and pyroglutamic acid are the main acids found in potatoes.
All foods, except for pure water, are either acid-forming or alkaline-forming in the body, depending on the molecules they produce when digested.
As a result, each thing we consume has a temporary and minor impact on our body’s pH balance.
Alkaline-forming foods allow our body to maintain its natural balance and contribute to vital alkali reserves.
Acid-forming foods deplete alkali reserves when ingested in excess, causing our body’s pH to shift away from its naturally alkaline condition and acidity.
The result is more predisposition to disease and difficulty in healing and restoration.
The pH of potatoes is unaffected by boiling. Boiling in acidic water while adding sea salt and spices may lower the pH. Baking also has no impact on the acidity of potatoes or sweet potatoes. It is a healthier way of cooking because most nutrients are preserved.
However, potatoes or sweet potatoes are mostly consumed with unhealthy food ingredients such as butter or cream. This makes them inadequate for the alkaline diet.
So, instead of having a traditional baked potato topped with butter, sour cream, or cheese, I advise making an organic baked potato seasoned with parsley, sea salt, and chives.
This is considerably more alkaline-forming in the body. Most herbs and spices and sea salt, vegetable salt, and parsley are alkaline-forming in the body.
Olive oil is another alkalizing item that you can use in place of butter for extra flavor and richness.
In addition, pesticides also diminish all foods’ alkalizing capacity. Rather than removing the skins off conventional kinds, it is always recommended to buy organic and ingest the skins to get the maximum nutrition and alkalizing potential from potatoes.
What are other reasons not to eat Sweet potatoes?
Potatoes, as well as sweet potatoes, are high in complex carbs.
Many carbohydrate foods contain fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and take longer to digest. Hence, they have a delayed effect on blood sugar.
Other complex carbohydrate foods, such as white bread and white potatoes, are high in starch but low in fiber and other nutrients.
Therefore scientists created the glycemic index to describe how different types of carbohydrate-rich foods directly affect blood sugar, and is now regarded as a superior way of categorizing carbs, particularly starchy foods.
On a scale of 0 to 100, the glycemic index classifies carbohydrates according to how much and how quickly they race up blood sugar levels after eating.
High-glycemic-index foods include white potatoes but also sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes contain high amounts of oxalic acid. Sweet potato oxalates capture and inhibit the absorption of vital minerals in your body, particularly calcium.
Oxalates also bind calcium, causing a harmful effect on your body. Because a lack of calcium is a major component in the development of inflammation, excessive consumption of sweet potatoes can eventually result in arthritis and osteoporosis.
Many studies have also connected high-oxalate food consumption to the production of calcium oxalate kidney stones. Kidney stones are painful hard crystals that occur in the kidneys and are typically made up of calcium compounds that are intractable.
Another downside of high-concentration oxalic acid consumption is that it may cause harmful oxalic acid crystals or gallstones in the body.
A gallstone is a tiny, hard crystalline mass of bile pigments, cholesterol, and calcium salts that form improperly in the gallbladder or bile ducts. Gallstones can cause excruciating discomfort and bile duct obstruction.
Scientists have discovered another compound in sweet potatoes – phytoalexins, which might cause lung edema and worsen pneumonia symptoms.
Raw sweet potatoes have trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA) ranging from 20-90 percent inhibition in some varieties. Heating a sweet potato to 90°C for several minutes inactivates the trypsin inhibitors, but if the vegetable is eaten raw, it could be hazardous.
According to studies, this can lead to enteritis, a fatal type of food poisoning.
In the end, sweet potatoes have a very high content of beta-carotene, and their excessive consumption can lead to hypervitaminosis A (a high amount of vitamin A in the body that is toxic).
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin stored in the liver, which is why you should take care of the number of potatoes you eat.
Is Sweet Potato An Alkaline Food?
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