Last Updated on May 19, 2023 by River Tree Farms
If you love eating sweet potatoes, you must wonder if it is safe to eat uncooked sweet potatoes. A lot of people like the taste of sweet potatoes and can’t resist the temptation of trying sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are also very healthy. They have lots of vitamins A and C, calcium, and fiber. However, there’s always a catch with this type of food. Is it safe to eat uncooked sweet potatoes?
The short answer to this question is yes. It’s perfectly harmless to eat uncooked sweet potatoes, steam them, boil them, or even bake them if you want.
Keep reading to learn more!
Benefits of Eating Raw Sweet Potatoes
Undercooked sweet potatoes offer the following health benefits to your body:
- Keep your heart healthy: raw sweet potatoes are rich in fiber, which lowers cholesterol levels, thus preventing cardiovascular disease.
- Boost your immunity: Sweet potatoes contain antioxidants that protect your body from free radical damage. Additionally, eating raw sweet potatoes gives your body vitamin A, which makes immune cells fight off infections and diseases.
- Support healthy vision: sweet potatoes are packed with beta-carotene, which your body converts into vitamin A and uses to create light-sensing receptors in your eyes.
- Enhances your brain’s function: choline compound in sweet potatoes helps in brain development and is vital in neurotransmitter acetylcholine synthesis, a combination responsible for sending messages between cells.
- Blood sugar regulation: uncooked sweet potatoes are rich in potassium and magnesium, significantly preventing hypertension and stroke.
Side Effects of Eating Raw Sweet Potatoes
If uncooked sweet potatoes are not taken in moderation, they can cause the following complications:
- May cause stones: their high oxalate content levels can result in kidney and gall bladder stones in your body.
- Stomach complications: around 0.27 per 100 grams, the mannitol may cause stomach ache and bloating. It is advisable to avoid raw sweet potatoes if you’ve stomach problems.
- Vitamin A toxicity: when you consume a lot of sweet potatoes, you may have toxicity in Vitamin A, which causes rashes and headaches.
Can Dogs Eat Raw Sweet Potato?
No.dogs can’t eat raw sweet potatoes because they can cause intestinal blockage and digestive upsets. However, you can feed your dog with cooked sweet potatoes since they contain essential nutrients like magnesium, calcium, potassium, and vitamin B6, boosting immunity.
Before including sweet potatoes in your dog’s diet, please consult your veterinarian because excess vitamin A can lead to muscle weakness and bone problems.
Raw Sweet Potato vs. Cooked
The nutritional value of raw sweet potatoes is high than that of cooked sweet potatoes. You can prepare various raw sweet potato recipes, from salad making to raw sweet potatoes smoothie.
When you cook them, this nutrition is lost, but raw sweet potatoes significantly retain their nutritional value.
Raw sweet potato smoothie offers a considerable amount of carotene and folic acid. These two compounds are responsible for inhibiting cancer cells hence preventing the disease.
However, raw and cooked sweet potatoes are low-sugar and calorie foods rich in fiber. Eating raw sweet potato salad increases satiety and helps absorb oil in the gastrointestinal tract, hence leading to weight loss.
| Nutrient | Amount per 100g of raw sweet potatoes |
| Fiber | 3 grams |
| Water | 77% |
| Calories | 86 |
| Carbs | 20.1 grams |
| Sugar | 4.2 grams |
| Fat | 0.1 grams |
Let’s discuss the following three nutrients.
Fiber
Sweet potatoes have both soluble and insoluble fibers. Insoluble fibers come in lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose, while soluble ones are pectin.
Soluble fibers decrease food intake and reduce blood sugar levels by slowing sugars and starches digestion.
Consumption of insoluble fiber improves your gut health and reduces the risks of diabetes.
Proteins
Raw sweet potatoes are not rich in proteins. A medium-sized sweet potato has only 2 grams of protein.
Whenever the plant suffers physical damage, it produces a particular protein called sprains that contains antioxidant properties to facilitate healing.
Sweet potatoes are a great source of micronutrients even though they have low protein levels.
Vitamins and Minerals
The following are some of the vitamins and minerals in sweet potatoes:
- Potassium
- Carotene
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E
- Manganese
- Vitamin B5
Read More:
What Meat Goes With Sweet Potatoes? Few Easy Tips
Bottom Line
We’ve concluded that the answer to this question is most definitely yes; it is safe to eat uncooked sweet potatoes. However, you should be wary of cooking methods that require boiling or microwaving a sweet potato that is any more significant than four inches in diameter—doing so may lead to a small number of carcinogens permeating through the potato. Otherwise, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to avoid uncooked sweet potatoes; however, we recommend that you stick to smaller portions and enjoy them in moderation.
