Can You Eat Sweet Potatoes If You Have Diabetes? Here's What Dietitians Say (2024)

FAQs

Can You Eat Sweet Potatoes If You Have Diabetes? Here's What Dietitians Say? ›

Although in moderation, any food can be part of a healthy, diabetes-friendly diet. Sweet potatoes are packed with nutrition and offer a high-fiber carbohydrate to any meal, which is important for a balanced plate whether you have diabetes or not.

Eating potatoes alongside low-GI foods that provide fiber, lean protein, and healthful fats can help balance the nutritional benefits of a meal. Eating high-fiber foods can help a person moderate blood sugar levels and increase their feeling of fullness after a meal.

Is peanut butter good for people with diabetes? In moderation, eating regular peanut butter (not low-fat) should be fine for people with diabetes. Low-fat peanut butter should be reduced or avoided. This is because the fat content of low-fat peanut butter can be replaced with sugar and result in more carbohydrates.

Sugar Content

As with all things, excess is bad, and this applies also to your sugar intake. While eating 3.5 ounces of sweet potatoes likely will have a negligible impact on your health, if you eat additional helpings of sweet potatoes, the sugar count can quickly add up.

A person with diabetes should include a variety of fresh, whole foods in their diet, such as nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. Bananas are a safe and nutritious fruit for people with diabetes to eat in moderation as part of a balanced, individualized eating plan.

Sweet potatoes are known to be high in fiber and have a low glycemic index, which results in a less immediate impact on blood glucose levels. This can help people with diabetes keep their blood sugar levels in check. Sweet potatoes can be: Baked or microwaved.

Some evidence-based guidelines recommend consuming low glycemic index foods (whole grain bread, legumes, and basmati rice) in place of high glycemic foods (such as potatoes and watermelon) to manage glycemic control.

But there is one food that stands alone as the best snack for lower blood sugar: nuts. Nuts are delicious, nutritious and incredibly versatile as far as snack foods go. Plus, they can be stored at room temperature (or in the freezer for longer periods) and are great for grab-and-go snacks.

Avoid nuts that are coated in salt — Dobbins notes that sodium is bad for your blood pressure — and sugar. More bad news if you love the sweet-and-savory combo: Chocolate-covered peanuts and honey-roasted cashews are high in carbs and not the best choice when you have diabetes, Dobbins says.

Peanuts and peanut butter have even been shown to help lessen the spike in blood sugar when paired with high-carbohydrate or high-GL foods. Peanuts and peanut butter are both low GI and GL foods, as they contain healthy oils, protein, and fiber that have a positive effect on blood sugar control.

When not to eat sweet potatoes? ›

How to tell if sweet potatoes have gone bad. If your sweet potato is soft in spots, smells rotten, or oozes a mysterious liquid, that potato should be discarded. Another sign that sweet potatoes have taken a turn for the worse is if they start growing stalky purplish sprouts.

Sweet potatoes are rich in oxalate content and can result in the formation of kidney stones. Consuming sweet potatoes in excess can result in sweet potato side effects such as Vitamin A toxicity, which is manifested in skin rashes and headaches.

Sweet potatoes with orange flesh are richest in beta-carotene. Sweet potatoes with purple flesh are richer in anthocyanins. Beta-carotene and anthocyanins are naturally occurring plant “phyto” chemicals that give vegetables their bright colors.

1. Berries. Berries, such as blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, are among the most nutritious fruits you can eat. Not only are they rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and compounds with anti-inflammatory effects, but research has also linked berry consumption with improved glycemic control.

Drinking water is an excellent way to stay hydrated without consuming sugar. Green tea, cow's milk, and fermented milk (kefir) could also help you manage your blood sugar responses. Coffee also contains compounds that may help regulate blood sugar, but confirming this requires more research.

True or False: Bananas have too much sugar- False!

An average medium sized banana contains about 14 grams of sugar, which is about 53% of its total 105 calories. When you see that a banana is half sugar, it's easy to understand why some might think they need to steer clear of them.

In general, the longer a potato is cooked the higher the GI. Therefore, boiling or baking for long periods tends to increase the GI. Yet, cooling potatoes after cooking can increases the amount of resistant starch, which is a less digestible form of carbs. This helps lower the GI by 25–28% ( 21 , 22).

Potatoes can be baked, mashed, roasted, sautéed, scalloped, hashed, and so much more. By portioning potatoes and pairing them with a protein and non-starchy vegetables, they can be a healthy and delicious part of any meal!

They're also chock full of starch, which is a carbohydrate. But even though a potato is considered a complex “healthy” carb, your body digests these carbs faster than other kinds of complex carbs. These broken-down carbs flood your blood with sugar. This makes your blood sugar spike quickly.

If you do not want to use up your carb choices from potatoes or rice and are looking for low carb choices you can try mashed cauliflower with low fat tub margarine or spray butter. One half cup serving of cooked cauliflower is only 5 grams of carbohydrate.