How Sweet Potatoes Were Wrongly Named Yams In The US (video)

[Westside PUFAs]

 

[tara]

Funny. I knew there was some confusion, and I hadn't understood what everyone meant.
Where I am, what's called yams look nothing like either of those roots. They are much smaller tubers, have much thinner yellow/orange/ red skins. The things the video calls yams I've never seen here. They look more like taro than anything else I've seen - both skin and flesh - but the shape isn't quite the same as the taro I see here, which is usually a bit rounder/less conical.

I love our yams and I love taro, but I have limited tolerance for the 'sweet potatoes' as with pumpkin and carrot - I presume the carotenes.

 

[Westside PUFAs]

They look a bit like taro but it's still not the same. They are two different tuber species.

 

[tara]

They look a bit like taro but it's still not the same. They are two different tuber species.

That makes sense to me.

 

[papaya]

have either of u ever tried purple yam/sweet potato? they taste like candy,so yummy & so healthy. the small ones r the sweetest.

 

[tara]

purple ... sweet potato?

The one with whitish flesh with purple streaks? Or the really purple-fleshed one?
I've eaten the former many times. I enjoy occasionally, but get tired of it if eat it too often. Not tried the latter.

 

[papaya]

the one's w/the purple flesh. filipinos make deserts/candy/ice cream/cakes etc from them. i haven't had them in a while but i get mine in chinatown

 

[squanch]

Real yams (Dioscorea) are awesome.
You can get them at asian/indian/african grocery stores here in europe almost all year round.
They all look like this, I've never seen the round variety shown in the video:

There's also the chinese variety from the same family which looks like this and is way to expensive, so I've never actually tried it:

Cassava (also called manioc, yuca) look similar but are a completely different plant family (but I personally don't like them because of their high cyanide content)

Taro (also called cocoyam) are also pretty good, but have a high oxalate content unfortunately:

Fun fact:
If you cut up raw yams (dioscorea) they will smell almost indistinguishable from semen. Seriously...
But they taste great cooked. Just mash 'em up and they will turn into this doughy paste (fufu).

Also here's some pretty good information on the main tubers consumed by humans:
Roots, tubers, plantains and bananas in human nutrition - Contents

Yams are a great, very low toxin tuber. Wish they were a bit cheaper here. Also you really have to watch out for bad yams when you buy them, a lot of them will have rotten parts or holes in them from insects (because of the lack of defensive toxins I assume)

Absolutely hate sweet potatoes. They will cause me to fart like no other food will.
It's not the carotenes ray mentioned at some point (the white fleshed variety will do the same thing).
They all contain large amounts of indigestible raffinose, which will have that effect.
I assume at some point if you eat them daily your gut flora will change in favor of bacteria that effectively process the raffinose without much gas, not sure if that's a good thing though.

 

[tara]

Great summary Skally. Wish there were real yams around ere to try.

Absolutely hate sweet potatoes. They will cause me to fart like no other food will.

Worse than Jerusalem (f)artichokes? :)

 

[squanch]

Worse than Jerusalem (f)artichokes? :)

I've seen them a few times in the supermarket but never actually tried them. You're talking about those little things here, right?

They call them topinambur here.

 

[tara]

I've seen them a few times in the supermarket but never actually tried them. You're talking about those little things here, right?

Yep, delicious roasted or boiled as soupy puree, but most productive over the following hours. :) So I don't eat them often. Easy to grow, related to sunflowers maybe?

 

[ecstatichamster]

I've seen them a few times in the supermarket but never actually tried them. You're talking about those little things here, right?

They call them topinambur here.

Loaded with resistant starch. One of the bad times was the day after we had a bunch of these in our dinner.

 

[Peater Piper]

have either of u ever tried purple yam/sweet potato? they taste like candy,so yummy & so healthy. the small ones r the sweetest.

There's a store here that carries something called "Friedas Potatoes, Purple Sweet, Stokes." On Friedas website, they're listed as an Okinawan sweet potato, but then a search for Stokes potatoes turns up a story about a man in North Carolina that was given a purple sweet potato of unknown origin. The man patented them and they're sold under the Friedas brand. I plan on trying them once they're in stock.

 

[tara]

Loaded with resistant starch.

That doesn't surprise me, given the effects.

 

[Westside PUFAs]

Cassava (also called manioc, yuca) look similar but are a completely different plant family (but I personally don't like them because of their high cyanide content)

It's mostly in the leaves but clever humans figured out ways around this, which is why is such an important crop for a 500 million people and seeing as they don't all drop dead from it, it works:

"Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important tropical root crop providing energy to about 500 million people. The presence of the two cyanogenic glycosides, linamarin and lotaustralin, in cassava is a major factor limiting its use as food or feed. Traditional processing techniques practiced in cassava production are known to reduce cyanide in tubers and leaves. Drying is the most ubiquitous processing operation in many tropical countries. Sun drying eliminates more cyanide than oven drying because of the prolonged contact time between linamarase and the glucosides in sun drying. Soaking followed by boiling is better than soaking or boiling alone in removing cyanide. Traditional African food products such as gari and fufu are made by a series of operations such as grating, dewatering, fermenting, and roasting. During the various stages of gari manufacture, 80 to 95% cyanide loss occurs. The best processing method for the use of cassava leaves as human food is pounding the leaves and cooking the mash in water. Fermentation, boiling, and ensiling are efficient techniques for removing cyanide from cassava peels."
Cyanide detoxification in cassava for food and feed uses. - PubMed - NCBI

"The proper processing of cassava – drying, soaking in water, rinsing or baking – effectively reduces cassava’s linamarin content. But, said Sayre, shortcut processing techniques, which are frequently used during famines, can yield toxic food products.

While cassava roots contain less than 10 percent of the linamarin level found in cassava leaves, it’s the long-term exposure to cyanide that presents a threat to humans."
Researchers Get To The Root Of Cassava's Cyanide-Producing Abilities

I don't throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to certain foods because I think there may be something of value in them. Nutritional science is a joke. There is so much that is not studied. Cassava may contain an undiscovered nutrient that is very beneficial. I've recently started eating raw sprouted pumpkin and watermelon seeds. I'm not worried about the pufa and I feel they have nutriment value.