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Ok so I have been buying plain taters, but not wanting them as much as white sweet potatoes, and 'yams' the orange ones. But then after realizing they aren't really true yams, I searched them out and found some at an oriental grocery store...and the health food store!

Ummmm, they are soooooo yummy!!!! But they are much higher in cals. Are they ok to eat? Just need to control my intake right? Are they really 527 calories per pound??? Is that too much? Or am I getting the wrong info??? Sweet potatoes are 409 cals per pound right?

Does Dr. McDougall talk about real yams ever??? I found a whole bunch of different squash to try on Easter too while the rest of the family eats filet mignon and fried breaded chicken with alfredo~pasta. Soooo not my thang anyway! lol Meee likey sweet potatoes and yams!! Hope they are ok??? Anyone else eat these yummy precious tubers??

Yep, I eat yams and sweet potatoes, both are starch, which is what Dr M. stresses.

I picked up a couple oriental or Asian yams last time I was at Lee Lee's (I can't remember which they called them now, even though I told myself I would remember ). Scroll down at this link and see the pic of the tuber thingy. That's what mine look like. Still don't know what I'm going to do with them. They probably weight around a pound each.

http://www.phamfatale.com/id_2292/title ... rimp-Soup/ is the link. The author calls this khoai mo, but it's not purple, and I think khoai mo is supposed to be purple...no? Gets confusing...

I don't know about the calories per pound. I think yams are a bit higher calories than sweet potatoes. Not sure it matters. Your body will use a lot of energy (calories) to digest the starch. You'd have to overeat it for a long period of time to gain fat. It doesn't readily store as fat. That's my understanding anyway.

YMMV

Now, what should I do with these things I bought? Boil and mash like potatoes? That's my inclination.

I love Japanese sweet potatoes and eat them regularly, they're purple skinned and white flesh.

Cheers

The following post from JeffN explains the whole 'calorie density' concept better than anything else I've come across:

"Unlimited does not mean unlimited in the sense that you can eat all you want of anything.

What it means is that if you follow the principles of the program, especially of the Maximum Weight Loss program, you will be able to eat all you want until you are comfortably full, and still lose weight.

The reason, is due to calorie density. Many many studies have been done in the last few decades confirming this. If you allow people to eat "ad libitum" or all they want till the are comfortably full, from low calorie dense foods, they will lose weight, not be hungry and do not have to count calories.

Of course, calories still count, but it becomes almost impossible to over consume calories from the foods you choose if you follow these recommendations.

These are averages

Fresh Veggies are around 100 cal/lb
Fresh Fruits around 250-300 cal/lb
Starchy Veggies/Intact Whole Grains around 450-500 cal/lb
Legumes around 550-600 cal/lb
Processed Grains (even if their Whole grain) around 1200-1500 cal/lb
Nuts/Seeds around 2800 cal/lb
Oils around 4000 cal/lb

What they found is if the calorie density of the food is below 400 calories per pound, not matter how much they eat, they all lost weight.

Between 600-800 calories per pound, with some moderate exercise, they all lost weight.

Between 800-1200 calories per pound, people gained weight, except for those with very high activity levels

Over 1200 calories per pound, everyone gained weight.

These numbers are also inline with other recommendations.

The recent WCF/AICR report on cancer recommends that the average calorie density of our diets be around 550-600 calories per pound, to avoid obesity and weight problems.

The Okinawan diet, before Western influence, was around 600-650 calories per pound

So, knowing all this, if you look at the numbers, it all makes sense.

A starch based diet, made up of starchy vegetables and intact whole grains along with some fruit and veggies, will have a calorie density under 500 calories per pound and maybe even 400 calorie per pound. It would be near impossible to overeat.

You can also see the problem with many of the "low fat" diets that focused on processed whole grains, like whole wheat bread, crackers, dry cereals. At 1200-1500 calories per pound, if they become a large part of the diet, they can raise the overall calorie density and make it much easier to overeat on calories and easy to gain weight and/or not lose weight, even with a higher activity level. Hence the principles of the MWL program is to avoid those foods, or really limit them."

So enjoy your sweet potatoes or yams. If your weigh-loss needs a boost, balance the taters out with low-calorie density vegetables.

Kate

http://www.smdc.or.jp/gochisou/seibu/im ... /ph_01.jpg
Wonder if this pic will work??? This is actually the kind I have... after researching more, I guess they are still sweet potatoes?? lol
But I would love to try those real yams!!! Thank you all very much!!!! I have boiled them... and baked them in the 'NEW WAVE' oven with a lil water on the bottom. They are actually better and moister in the oven... weird, cuz I thought boiling them would be yummmier, denser and 'wetter' does that make sense??
I am sooooooooo super happy and satisfied eating this way! I think I have officially lost my fear of starch consumption!!! Thank you for being so sweet and patient with me!!!! I love sweet potatoes! I am coming from 801010/raw fruits and I must say I am so much more content on starches!!! Who would have thunk!!! And my tummy is flatter! How is that possible!?!??!?!?

most all labeled "yams" are sweet potatoes. unless they are dry, flaking and are huge and look like a piece of a tree stomp. sweet potatoes are all elongated and dont have that tree stomp/hairy texture.

i told you starches worked better then fruit and wouldnt make you fat! (from lfrv forum lol)

Heehee Hiiiii cbs!!! Yessss it is meee!!! How are you!??? I should just change my name on here, right!?! lol Thank you sooo much girl~y!!!!! I cannot believe how much time I wasted, trying to make fruit work for me!!!! This is too good to be true. I have never been satisfied like..this unless I was eating garbage food and then feeling horrible for the next month..lol and with fruit, I would have to stuff my face till I was sooo full I couldn't or didn't wanna move. I really wish I didn't waste all that time!
You honestly are the influential person and push I needed to change my way~o~eating. Thank you sooo much for reaching out to me, helping me, and giving me the info I needed to make this wise decision!!!
It's funny, my mom and dad are eating all potatoes i just baked, as we 'speak'... and the thing is, with fruit, I would have had a 'panic attack' but now, I am just smiling.. and I know I can cook up some more no problem. It really is amazing how much more content and even keeled I am! And i never feel starving!!! It's very comforting.... thank you again cbs

Yeah, those are sweet potatoes.

I cooked my yams yesterday. Just peeled, boiled and mashed 'em. Tasted like potatoes. The interesting thing was the slickness of them when I peeled them. Sweet potatoes are more sticky when I peel them...or the feeling they leave on my hands is sticky anyway. Unpleasant. In comparison, the yams feel like they're coated with oil. Makes them hard to hold onto, for sure. Regular potatoes can make my hands itch when I peel them. That didn't happen with the yams. Felt more like I'd put lotion on them. Interesting. I will probably make these again. Keep some variety in the mix. My daughters, especially the picky youngest, will eat these more readily than sweet potatoes, because they like regular potatoes, but don't really like sweet potatoes. My youngest never met an orange vegetable (or pretty much any vegetable) that she didn't hate.

I think these yams would be good in soup.

True yams do look almost like a tree root. I bought one once, boiled it and tried to eat it. It didn't seem to have much flavor at all. I wonder how they are cooked to make them edible? Has anyone ever cooked them?

Michael

i'm so happy i was of help to someone! it saddens me how many times i read of people bingeing, constantly hungry/obsessed about food and gaining weight trying to make the raw fruit diet work for them. its become a religion (unsubstantiated by any science) where if only they did it "right" enough it would work. well food is not a religion and doesnt cure everything. a potato/starch is what satisfies. its not always volume. i told you lol! you will start feeling like a heavy loaf of bread and not want to eat if you eat too many potatoes, not so with fruit. i think the problems people have with this diet might be issues a rare few have with grains, not starches in and of themselves. i usually just eat potatoes as grains dont work well for me and never tire of them!

i will have to tell you i got a free blood glucose meeter. on fruit i always went hypoglycemic. 70 or less when tested during blood tests. with potatoes my blood sugar is always a steady 90-100 max, nothing low in the mornings. i will have to see one day if i eat a fruit meal if it jumps much higher right afterwards which i guess it did, then it drops low. its not a calorie thing as i dont need to eat nearly as much with starch. i guess this is why i feel more "even."

the japanese "yam" is a white sweet potato. the real yams are VERY dry and pasty and little taste. way more then the driest white jacket potato. i honestly dont like them. i also dont enjoy as much the traditional sweet potatoes lol, just the asian ones. to make them palatable you would really have to mash them with something to make them moister i think. i think fufu (like a gluey mashed potatoes) and fried yams with ketchup are ways they are usually eaten. they are huge too. and the skin is thick and hairy. you do not want to eat it. i'm not sure why they call sweet potatoes yams. i think the only difference with the white ones are maybe less vit A nutritionally. i find the sweet potatoes more filling and better tasting plain then white potatoes and the asian ones 100 times better tasting then the regular sweet potatoes. this is honestly my favorite food nowadays.

Took a pic of one of my yams next to a sweet potato.

http://karicooks.blogspot.com/2012/04/y ... otato.html

this is a yam. another difference besides the thick hairy skin is the fact that most yams can be several feet in length whereas sweet potatoes are all the length of a regular potato.

That's one yam. There are many others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yam_%28vegetable%29

I posted a link to a pic of the yam I bought. I picked smaller ones. There were also longer ones there. Mine wasn't hairy. It didn't have toes or anything. Other than the slickness making it harder to grip, it wasn't hard to peel.

I think in most cases, you won't find real yams in regular grocery stores. You'll have better luck at ethnic markets. You can probably find many other starchy tubers (cassava, taro, yam) there too. Then ya just gotta figure out what to do with them.

So, which is the yam and which is the sweet potato?

In our local stores, the signs always say "Sweet Potatoes (Yams)" - both names - for the one on the right in your pic. I've never seen the one on the left, nor the hairy one sin the pics in the post beneath yours on the forum.