Super sweet!

Meet my friend the sweet potato:

I’ll be honest, I’ve not always been a fan. In fact, before my MS diagnosis, I would have told you I hated them. But, as with so many things in my life, that has changed big time!

So what flipped the switch and turned these guys into one of my favorite foods? It was the fact these babies are known to reverse inflammation. If you remember, chronic inflammation in the body leads to a host of diseases but also causes obesity. In the weeks after my diagnosis when I was heavily researching what foods to incorporate to calm the inflammation in my body, every article pointed to the sweet potato. So, I decided to make myself give them a fair shot.

Roasted are by far my fave. I dice them or cut them into fry shape, coat them in coconut oil, salt, pepper, paprika, and chili powder and roast at 425 degrees until crispy (usually 20-30 mins). I eat them with lots of mustard. I mean, crazy insane good!!

And when I was steadily losing weight I noticed the weeks I are more sweet potatoes I lost significantly more weight! I am not exactly sure why that is, but I tested it several times and found it to be consistently true. I like white potatoes too and don’t restrict them, but if you are working on weight loss, you may try limiting them or switching them out with sweet potatoes!

Here are some incredible facts about sweet potatoes:

• *Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene).

• *They are also a very good source of vitamin C, manganese, copper, pantothenic acid and vitamin B6.

• *Additionally, they are a good source of potassium, dietary fiber, niacin, vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and phosphorus.

• *Health claims have been that they help improve the immune system, diabetes, and prevent cancer.

*Sources: whfoods.com, sweetpotatoes.com

And now that my husband are active runners training for a half and full marathon, we have found sweet potatoes to be an essential part of our week to give us some good carbs to get us through those long training runs!

An easy way to add sweet potatoes to your life is to bake several of them and keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to rehear and eat. Just heat the oven to 350, wrap the sweet potatoes in foil:

Bake for 45 mins to an hour or until you can easily stick a fork into them. When you go to rehear, you can just eat them with a little salt and pepper or do what I do and peel them, mash them in a cast iron pan and season with salt, pepper, and chili powder and eat them with some yummy fried eggs. It’s an easy weeknight meal!

Congratulations for getting to the end of this boring, nerdy food post :). I just like to share with you all some of the things that are super helpful and delicious to me! Hope this helps you!