sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes aren't just for Thanksgiving — eating this smooth, orange-colored flesh can help you fit into that bikini by Summer by assisting with controlling your appetite and keeping you feeling full. Here are three ways sweet potatoes can enhance your favorite meals:

Breakfast: Sweet Substitute
Oatmeal in the morning is hearty and filling since it's already a great source of fiber. But add a little more by mixing in a half cup of mashed sweet potato, and you'll not only gain 3.3 grams of fiber and two grams of protein, but it's so sweet you won't need to add a high-calorie sweetener like maple syrup (100 calories).

Lunch or Dinner: Lower-Calorie Burger Complement
French fries are to burgers like jelly is to peanut butter. Too bad a small three-ounce serving is a whopping 267 calories. While opting for fried sweet potatoes can offer more vitamin A, they're still deep-fried in oil, which makes them equally high in calories. Skip the fries dipped in ketchup and go for a small baked sweet potato with the skin (90 calories) instead and you'll save over 200 calories.

Dessert: Butter Replacement
Cooked mashed potatoes can be used to replace butter or oil in cake, quick breads, and muffin recipes and you'll save an astounding amount of calories. One cup of sweet potato contains 180 calories while the same amount of unsalted butter is — get ready for this — 1,628 calories! It's especially delicious if the recipe calls for cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, apples, bananas, carrots, or pumpkin. Replace half to three-quarters of the butter or oil, and if the batter looks too dry, add a bit more mashed sweet potato. You'll save on calories, but will also reduce the dessert's cholesterol and saturated fat.

For cozy comfort food that fills and satisfies, we're sharing flavorful sweet potato dishes for every meal — even breakfast! With everything from a nutty casserole to baked french fries to a smooth, creamy soup, our recipes prove that sweet potatoes can be a healthy, versatile pick. Try one of these tasty options for a sweet indulgence:

Sweet Potato Pone	Purple Sweet Potato Fries	Sweet Potato Soup
Fries With Avocado Dip	Sweet Potato Hash Browns	Caramelized Sweet Potatoes

If your exposure to sweet potatoes is limited to the Thanksgiving table or your favorite diner's healthier french fry option, now's the time to open your eyes to the weight-loss wonders of the tuber. Here are three reasons sweet potatoes help you drop pounds.

They're naturally sweet: No refined sugar overload here — sweet potatoes make for a healthy lower-calorie treat. Satisfy any morning sweet/salty cravings with these sweet potato breakfast biscuits and get your healthy dessert fill with these sweet potato desserts.

They regulate blood sugar: Sweet potatoes may have their fair share of carbs (about 33 grams per cup), but they contain a compound that increases levels of adiponectin, the blood-sugar-regulating hormone, in the body. Sweet potatoes have a relatively low glycemic index rating (50), which can also help prevent blood sugar spikes after you eat. Regulated blood sugar levels can help get rid of those sugary cravings you get when your levels dip. And while studies have been conflicting, some research has shown that low-glycemic foods stay in your digestive tract longer, helping you control your appetite. To maintain sweet potatoes' low-glycemic properties, boil or steam them instead of roasting them (which destroys some of these properties).

They contain fiber: High-fiber foods are another foolproof way to control hunger. Fiber helps you feel fuller for longer, and one medium sweet potato (about one cup) contains four grams of the nutrient.

Sweet potatoes don't just help you trim your waistline, however. They're powerful sources of vitamin A, which helps boost immunity and promotes good eye, skin, and bone health, as well as high levels of anti-inflammatory antioxidants. Regardless of whether you're trying to lose weight or not, sweet potatoes' seemingly superfood status isn't a license to order all the sweet potato fries you want — a recent study found that those deep-fried sweet potato fries may not be as healthy as you think!

Butternut squash and sweet potatoes are two nutritional powerhouses of Fall. Although both are known for their orange hue, these two crowd-pleasers do have their differences. Both are off the charts for vitamin A, but are you curious to see what kind of value they each add to your meals?

Check out the comparison!

It's Thanksgiving, and sweet potatoes are everywhere. There are so many different ways to serve sweet potatoes, and we've covered a lot of them: from sweet potato soup and fries to pone and pie.

Sure, you can mash them and throw some marshmallows on top for a traditional preparation, but here's a slightly different preparation of this root vegetable for Fall. Sweet potatoes are boiled, peeled, cut into two-inch rounds, browned in butter, and topped with sautéed onions. For the recipe, keep reading.