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