Yams or Sweet Potatoes?
When you consider getting yams or sweet potatoes, do you assume they are roughly equivalent, nutritionally?
Well, they definitely ain’t!
Comparing ALL the nutritional elements, sweet potatoes come out almost 15 times as nutritious as yams.
The Vitamin A is the biggest difference — 344 times as much Vit. A in sweet potatoes.
Check out this complete comparison chart I put together this morning:
(Quantity = 1 cup. ‘%’ indicates percentage of daily value)
| Nutrient | Yam | Sweet Potato | S.P. compared to Yam |
| Calories | 158 | 249 | 1.6 X |
| Total Carbohydrates | 12% | 19% | 1.6 X |
| Dietary fiber | 21% | 33% | 1.6 X |
| Sugars | 1g | 19g | 19.0 X |
| Fat | 0% | 1% | 10.0 X |
| Protein | 2g | 4g | 2.0 X |
| Vitamin A | 3% | 1033% | 344.0 X |
| Vitamin C | 27% | 70% | 2.6 X |
| Vitamin E | 2% | 15% | 7.5 X |
| Vitamin K | 4% | 9% | 2.3 X |
| Thiamin | 9% | 12% | 1.3 X |
| Riboflavin | 2% | 9% | 4.5 X |
| Niacin | 4% | 9% | 2.3 X |
| Vitamin B6 | 16% | 27% | 1.9 X |
| Folate | 5% | 5% | 1.0 X |
| Vitamin B12 | 0% | 0% | 1.0 X |
| Pantothenic Acid | 4% | 19% | 4.8 X |
| Choline | 22 mg | 35.4 mg | 1.6 X |
| Betaine | – | – | 1.0 X |
| Calcium | 2% | 9% | 4.5 X |
| Iron | 4% | 13% | 3.3 X |
| Magnesium | 6% | 15% | 2.5 X |
| Phosphorus | 7% | 10% | 1.4 X |
| Potassium | 26% | 22% | -0.8 X |
| Sodium | 0% | 4% | 10.0 X |
| Zinc | 2% | 4% | 2.O X |
| Copper | 10% | 15% | 1.5 X |
| Manganese | 25% | 44% | 1.8 X |
| Selenium | 1% | 1% | 1.0 X |
| AVERAGE | 1 X | 14.8 X | 14.8 X |
