REPs Magazine Fitness Matters Issue 2 | Page 32

SUPERFOOD SO SWEET It’s the sweet tooth you’re allowed to have: an ingredient full of carbs, fibre and potassium. The sweetest of potatoes. Chips Nutritionally unrecognisable from its simple potato origins, chips will have been fried, salted and almost always de-skinned – removing one of the healthiest parts of the potato, full of nutrients and fibre! 32 FM Baked or boiled potatoes Four helpings of traditional potatoes a week raises your risk of hypertension by 11 percent due to each potato’s high Glycemic Index (GI) levels, ultimately raising your blood pressure. Sweet potatoes contain notably low GI. www.exerciseregister.org finchfocus/Shutterstock.com To understand what makes sweet potatoes the superb, fitness fanatics’ favourite that it is, let’s first weigh up its competitors, before attempting three sweet potato dishes. Yam Sometimes confused with sweet potatoes, yams are similar in appearance and similarly healthy: high in fibre and potassium, more so even than sweet pots. Yet they are another sufferer of higher GI, carry a greater number of calories and have less beta-carotene, a nutrient thought to guard against certain cancers.