Sweet Potato or Yam....what's the difference?

Renee recently asked what the difference is between sweet potatoes and yams. The following link at the end of this post explains the difference. In actuality, most sweet potatoes and "yams" found in our grocery stores are in fact actually all sweet potatoes and have been mislabeled in American grocery stores as yams. There are many varieties of sweet potatoes and they range in skin and flesh color and texture as well as taste.

Here is an excerpt from the link below that further explains the difference:
The moist-fleshed, orange-colored root vegetable that is often thought of as a "yam" is actually a sweet potato. It was given this name after this variety of sweet potato was introduced into the United States in the mid-20th century in order to distinguish it from the white-fleshed sweet potato to which most people were accustomed. The name "yam" was adopted from "nyami," the African word for the root of the Dioscoreae genus of plants that are considered true yams. While there are attempts to distinguish between the two, such as the mandatory labeling by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that the moist-fleshed, orange-colored sweet potatoes that are labeled as "yams" also be accompanied by the label "sweet potato," when most people hear the term "yam," they think of the orange-colored sweet potato as opposed to the true yam, a root vegetable belonging to the Dioscoreae family, which are monocotyledons (have one embryonic seed leaf). Sweet potatoes belong to the Convolvulaceae or morning glory plant family, are dicotyledons (having two embryonic seed leaves) and are known by the scientific name of Ipomoea batatas.

Whether you prefer the lighter flesh colored sweet potatoes or the darker orange flesh sweet potatoes (aka "yams"), either are a good choice for carbohydrates and it is more a matter of taste preference than significant nutritional differences.


http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=64

Anti-Inflammatory Diet - Dr. Weil

I read a lot of stuff from Dr. Weil and find that he does a pretty good job of breaking down the science of nutrition. As with Whole30, Dr. Weil writes a lot about how to eat in order to limit the body's inflammation response that is caused by certain foods. The following link is what he suggests to eat for controlling the body's inflammation response. There are some similarities and differences between his advice and that of Whole30, which also aims to reduce the body's inflammation response. I think when reintroducing certain foods into the diet after completing Whole30 that some of Dr. Weil's guidelines for macronutrients are good to follow.

Anti-Inflammatory Diet - Dr. Weil

Life after Whole 30

Good job, Renee....way to stick with it and notice the differences. So far, I have only reintroduced bread in my diet. That was yesterday when I had some white bread with my salad at lunch and then for dinner two slices of Ezekiel 4:9 bread for dinner. So, I really didn't expect to feel much different, but when I woke up this morning, I could definitely feel the aches and pains back that had previously subsided. My knee joints were sore and two muscular injuries that I had been nursing (one on the arm from soccer and one on the hip from running) were noticeably inflammed and sore. I had otherwise ate great and stayed well hydrated the day before, so my guess is that the bread had something to do with it.

Only 2 more days left of Whole 30

Only 2 more days left of the Whole 30 program, and still feeling good with it. My energy level has been great. While I haven't really had cravings for any of the things I've taken out of my diet, the biggest struggle for me has been getting enough protein and disciplining myself to eat more vegetables. These are two things that I am going to continue to focus on improving after this 30 days is up. Even though I will be reintroducing grains, dairy, legumes (at a slow pace of course), I still plan on working on my protein and vegetable intake. Both are key to good health, muscle retention, and performance.

Day 22 - Getting pretty used to this....

So, it just dawned on me that it is already day 22 and there is only 8 days left of this Whole 30 round for Kaci and me. My take is that this has actually been pretty simple. Although, I think there are a few things I can improve upon....more veggies and less fruit (I'm addicted to raspberries, strawberries, and cherries I think), and fewer nuts (probably am "crackin out" on nuts more than I should - they are too darn convenient). Aside from those things, I haven't had any cravings for processed foods or desserts/sugary stuff, dairy, or even grains or legumes. It seems pretty crazy, but I don't really miss any of it. We went to a wedding this weekend, and I was able to bypass the wedding cake, wine, Summer Brew (which sounded great), and my favorite mixed drink - Malibu Rum and diet Coke. I was content with my water and a plate of roast beef, veggies and fruit, and was still able to socialize with everyone else just fine. :-)

So, how are the rest of you ladies doing following the Whole 30? Any particular issues?

Day 16 - Over half way

Ok, so we are over half way on the Whole 30 program. I have to confess that this weekend was a little difficult for me. Not because of temptations for anything (like ice cream or a glass of wine:-), but just due to bad planning. We were out in the Gorge this weekend, hiking and staying at Skamania Lodge. My energy got really low after hiking all day on Saturday and then sitting in the jaccuzzi and sauna Sat evening. On Sunday, I was drained. For breakfast, I did the best I could from the menu, which ended up being an omlette with bacon (no cheese and fruit instead of hashbrowns) all was good until we went to the driving range to hit a few balls. My energy dropped a lot and I had to get something to eat. With the few choices I had from the snack shack at the golf course, I ended up with beef jerkey and dried fruit in a trail mix both containing sugar. Neither was very satisfying or helped my energy low. So, my lesson learned was that I need to plan better. The difference for me I later realized was that I did not have nearly the amount of vegetables (or protein) all weekend that I'd been eating the last two weeks. Usually I carry lots of raw veggies with me (carrots, bell peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, etc.)and munch on those throughout the day, which keeps my energy even and always provides the pick up I need when I start to feel tired.

So, the key is planning ahead! Especially when you don't know what food options you are going to have. Here is a link to what Dallas and Melissa keep in their cooler for their road trip.

Food for the cooler

Day 12 - Still going strong

Just a quick update before the holiday weekend to report that as of day 12, the Whole 30 program is still going well for me. Still need to work on getting more sleep, but energy has been consistent throughout the day and no real strong cravings for any of the foods that have been removed. I am mostly amazed with how much more mental focus I have and that my knees are not killing me in the mornings!

Kaci - Hope all is going well for you with the program - have a Happy 4th of July!

Day 7 of Whole 30

It has officially been one week since Kaci and I started this little adventure. This morning we did a long run and my legs felt great afterwards. My pre-run meal included one scrambled egg, 1/4 sweet potato, and about 5 baby carrots. My energy was good throughout the run and I was able to play soccer later in the day.

So far, I am still not having any "strong cravings", although something about hot summer nights makes me want ice cream, but I'll go for a handful of cherries that I picked from our cherry tree this weekend instead.

Controlling insulin response, inflammation, and acidifying effects are the main reason the Whole 30 program is so strict. Many foods can have negative effects without us really realizing it. Before doing this program, I often enjoyed eating oatmeal, brown rice, bread, string cheese, and plain greek yogurt. So, the idea of giving up dairy and grains for this was not appealing to me and hard for me to understand, since I felt like what I was eating was healthy. Since on the program, I have noticed improvement in recovery time, mental concentration, and no pain in my knees in the mornings, which I was really suffering from before. I am not entirely sure why the improvement and whether it has anything to do with removing dairy and/or grains from my diet, but once I start to reintroduce those back into my diet after the 30 day program, I may have a better idea. The links below are Dallas and Melissa's grain and dairy manifestos which explain their reasoning for taking these out of the diet.

Grain Manifesto

Dairy Manifesto

Day 4 of Whole 30

Today is day 4 on the Whole 30 plan and still going strong. Was pretty tired throughout the morning, but also didn't exercise until 4 pm, so I was a bit off schedule. I usually do my workout in the morning and that wakes me up, so that may have been why I was tired today until late morning. For breakfast, I had a lettuce wrapped burger (left overs from dinner), walnuts/raisin mix, and some grapes. Lunch was a chicken salad salad from the cafe down the street from my work - love that salad, but I skipped on the bread that comes with it. Instead, I had brought a cooked yam with me to work and had that as a complex carb with my salad. Snacks included strawberries, blackberries, cherries and celery with sunbutter, baby carrots, sliced yellow squash, sliced green bell pepper, and a couple spoonfuls of coconut butter. Dinner was a chicken breast with salad and oil/vinegar for dressing. I've been using oil/vinegar for salad dressing because most other dressings have either sugar or xantham gum in them, which is a corn product (i.e. another form of sugar). For exercise today, I did a bootcamp workout with folks from my work for about 40 minutes and then ran 4 miles. The run was hard because it was around 5 pm during the hot part of the day, but I had no pain in my shins or calves, which was great. I am definitely noticing an improvement in my inflammation problems after running and in the morning with the clean eating. I weighed myself this evening and am down almost 5 pounds already!

Day 3 of Whole 30

Today is day 3 of the Whole 30 program for Kaci and me. Not sure how Kaci is doing today, but I have to say that other than some energy drain/tiredness in the late afternoon, I'm feeling pretty good. The program is designed to control spike in blood sugar and insulin response and also inflammation. So far, I've noticed the following: Better mental concentration/productivity at work, no joint pain in my knees in the morning as I had been having, no pain after running (i.e. shin splints and calf cramps), and good level of energy throughout the day except for late afternoons, which generally improves upon eating. So far, no cravings for sugar, grains, or processed foods like I thought I would have.

Who's up for a challenge?

I mentioned in my previous post that I attended a nutrition seminar last week. It was put on by Melissa Urban and Dallas Hartwig of Whole9 who provide individual coaching on nutrition as well as travel all over conducting nutrition workshops. Their main philosophy is that whatever we put in our mouth will either help us be more healthy or will cause us to be less healthy.

They have designed a program called Whole 30, which basically works like an elimination diet where you take all the "garbage foods" and "other foods" that may be causing you to feel like garbage out of your diet for 30 days.......No Cheating Allowed!!!! At the end of the 30 days, you can begin to add some of the foods back in slowly (i.e. dairy, grains, legumes, etc.) and see how these foods affect you. Read the details and explanation of their program at Whole30.

Kaci Caldwell and I are going to be starting this on Monday, so that we have some personal support through the process. If anyone else may be interested in starting this, please let me know so we can all support each other during the process.......it won't be easy!

FYI - I do have some information they provided at the seminar such as shopping lists, websites, and recipes that I can share.

Getting Started

Hi Everyone,

In case you are wondering who is writing this blog....it is me....Patti, but hopefully I will be able to get others to contribute as it progresses. I decided to start this blog because at Challenge Fitness we get asked a lot of questions about nutrition.

At the beginning of 2010, I made a resolution that this would be the year that I would learn about nutrition, not for the sake of losing weight, but because I want to be healthy. Some of you know that I used to do figure competitions and the diet that I used in order to get lean enough to go on stage consisted of six meals a day of boiled chicken, broccoli, and sweet potatoes, two protein shakes, 1-2 gallons of water, and a dose of some kind of fat burner (you name it, I probably tried it) for three months straight, plus doing daily doubles of 45 minutes of cardio 5 days a week. While I was able to get a nice lean physique with this extreme regimen for the 5 competitions I did, I never felt healthy, I was irritable, had terrible headaches all the time, couldn't concentrate on anything for more than 5 minutes, and turned into a total ditz (yes, more than I am now). Then, show day would come and go and boom, I was up ten pounds and an additional 5% bodyfat in a month. So, I know that if I need to lean out and drop 20 pounds, that 3 months of the above described hell will do it, but although I might look "good" for a short period of time, the truth is that I won't be healthy. So, my goal this year was to learn about how to eat for "health".

I started by watching the movie, Food, Inc., which convinced me immediately to start buying organic everything and to begin scaling back on all processed foods. From there, I have started to do other research including reading books, internet research, talking to people, etc. I try to read books by different authors in order to get different perspectives, understanding that some authors are more "credentialed" that others, while others may just have more "personal experience and experimentation". As humans, we all have to eat to survive, so it makes no difference to me if a person is a certified nutritionist, medical doctor, or gym junkie who has messed with different regimens, we each have our own experience with food. I like to read it all. So far, the books I've read this year are: "Eating Well for Optimum Nutrition" by Andrew Weil, "Master Your Metabolism" by Jillian Michaels, and "The Eat Clean Diet" by Tosca Reno, and am currently reading "The Omnivore's Dillema" by Michael Pollan. I've also watched the movie Food Matters, went to my naturopath and had a food allergy test, followed various blogs, planted a garden in my yard, and just this week attended a seminar put on by Whole9. What I have found is that the information available on nutrition is endless and it can be quite confusing at times because opinions differ based on different research and experiences. So, my intent with this blog is to share things that I have found interesting, true for me personally, have experimented with, etc. as a way to pass on my research and learning. I do not hold out any particular "diet", "program", "eating lifestyle", whatever you want to call it, as the one and only. Food interacts with our body at the cellular level and because of that, each person will have their own reaction to food, therefore, what works for some people may or may not work for others. There are, however, a few basic principles, that I believe apply to all people when it comes to eating for health. These are:

1. Avoid all processed sugar and artificial sweeteners - these are basically like putting poison in your body.

2. Drink plenty of water throughout the day (i.e. 90 to 120 ounces)

3. Eat more vegetables and more varieties

4. Make meals that are comprised of lean protein, lots of vegetables, and some healthy fat.

5. Buy mostly organic foods

6. Do not eat meat that comes from feed lots of fish from farms - free range chickens, beef, pork, etc. and wild caught fish is much healthier.

7. Avoid processed foods all together. Anything from a box, can, bottle, etc. should be limited or preferably eliminated.

I'm sure there are more, but this is what I've got for now.