Okay, let’s first break down the facts before talking about the myths that are commonly spoken about white potato and sweet potato.

*Per 100g raw weight:

White potato has 69 calories, sweet potato has 86 calories.

How crazy is that? I know I was a little surprised about the lower calorie content that white potato contains…most people will usually pick sweet potato over white potato because they assume it has less calories. Well, there you have it! This is mainly drawn from the fact that white potato contains higher water content, making sweet potato more dense in macronutrients.

Sweet potato contains 20.1g of carbs while white contains 15.7g.

Another myth I’ve heard a lot. That sweet potato is the ‘better option’ because it contains less carbs. Also, not true!!

White potato contains 13.5g of starch and sweet potato contains 12.7g.

Now this isn’t a huge difference in grams, but, the amount of starch consumed per gram does make a huge difference in how we digest potato.

Both have less then 2g of protein, less than 0.5g of fat, 300-400mg of potassium, and several other micronutrients and vitamins all stuffed in there!

Now, this isn’t me trying to sway you one way or the other when consuming/choosing your potato. It is simply to inform you about the specific nutritional content that both white potato and sweet potato contain!

In terms of the often-popular choice of sweet potato, the real reason people should consider choosing it over white potato isn’t to do with the carb content, the calories etc. It is to do with the statistic that white potato contains more starch (by 1g which isn’t huge but does make a difference), which can be harder for our bodies to break down. In saying that, the type of starch that white potato contains (resistance starch) is actually found to contribute to a healthy gut microbiome. Sweet potato contains less starch, which can make it easier for us to break down and absorb all the beneficial nutrients from. These specific nutrients are vitamins (or micronutrients) such as: calcium, vitamin A and fibre (especially incredibly rich in Vitamin A with 14187 IU per 100g).

This just goes to show that a lot of the ‘facts’ around white vs sweet potato that you may have heard or thought to be true, aren’t necessarily accurate. In fact, neither white nor sweet potatoes are superior to the other!

- Bec