Is eating too much roasted sweet potato harmful? Precautions for pregnant women

Roasted sweet potato, also known as roasted sweet potato, is a food made by roasting sweet potatoes. It is sweet and delicious, and in winter you can see vendors selling roasted sweet potatoes everywhere. Sois eating too much roasted sweet potato harmful? What should you pay attention to? Can pregnant women eat roasted sweet potato?

1. Is eating too much roasted sweet potato harmful

1. The effects and benefits of sweet potato

Eating sweet potato in moderation has some benefits. Sweet potato can effectively inhibit cholesterol and prevent high cholesterol. Sweet potato is rich in potassium, which can reduce the risk of stroke. Eating sweet potato also has a blood pressure-lowering effect, can promote the excretion of excess sodium in the blood, and promote the balance of mineral levels in the body. Sweet potato also has quite good anti-cancer effects, with a role in preventing and fighting cancer, effectively inhibiting colon cancer and breast cancer.

2. The disadvantages of eating too much

It is best not to eat too much sweet potato. Eating sweet potato in moderation has many benefits for the body, but eating too much sweet potato, and sweet potato contains a lot of sugar, which cannot be digested all at once and will ferment in the intestines, causing gastrointestinal problems, causing stomach pain, bloating and other problems. If more serious, there will also be a feeling of heartburn. Moreover, some roasted sweet potatoes sold on the street are mostly roasted using coal, which contains some harmful substances, and should not be eaten too much.

2. What to pay attention to when eating roasted sweet potato

1. Taboos of eating sweet potato

To eat sweet potato healthily, there are some points to note. Sweet potato should not be eaten on an empty stomach, to avoid producing a large amount of gastric acid, irritating the gastric mucosa, causing acid reflux, and also causing heartburn. Patients with gastric ulcers, bloating and other conditions should not eat sweet potato. Sweet potato easily causes bloating. Generally speaking, it is best to eat roasted sweet potato at noon, to avoid the body not absorbing it all and causing indigestion, which would be bad.

2. There are three harms of eating sweet potatoes roasted by street vendors:

(1) Roasting sweet potatoes with coal produces toxins

Most roasted sweet potatoes sold on the street are made by roasting with coal, and when coal burns it produces a large amount of sulfur dioxide and carbon oxides. People who eat such contaminated sweet potatoes are prone to poisoning, and in severe cases, their digestive and respiratory systems will be damaged. In addition, because most street roasted sweet potato stalls have no sanitary facilities, the roasted sweet potatoes are easily subject to secondary contamination.

(2) The roasting oven may be a chemical raw material barrel

Most roasted sweet potato ovens on the street are made from scrap iron barrels. Some of these scrap iron barrels are gasoline barrels or diesel barrels, and some are chemical raw material barrels. Because these scrap iron barrels have not been thoroughly disinfected, their sanitary condition cannot be guaranteed. Some iron barrels still retain many chemical substances inside, and most of these chemical substances are harmful to the human body. After sweet potatoes are roasted at high temperature in the iron barrel, they will absorb many of the chemical substances in the barrel. People who eat such roasted sweet potatoes will suffer harm to the respiratory tract and nervous system.

3. Black spots on sweet potatoes are harmful to the human body

Now some roasted sweet potato vendors will take sweet potatoes that have grown black spots and roast them as if they were good sweet potatoes to sell. This is harmful to people who eat sweet potatoes. Experts explain that sweet potatoes infected with the black spot fungus will release two toxins, ipomeamarone and ipomeamaronol. These two toxins will make raw sweet potatoes hard and bitter, and boiling in water, steaming or roasting with fire cannot kill the black spot fungus. This kind of sweet potato with brown and dark brown spots, after roasting, will have the originally more obvious black spots become no longer obvious, and ordinary people simply cannot identify them.

After people eat black spot sweet potatoes, some will develop symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, and in severe cases there will be high fever, wheezing, convulsions, vomiting blood, coma and even death. Therefore, people who accidentally eat black spot sweet potatoes should immediately induce vomiting or promote bowel movement, and people who develop severe poisoning symptoms should be sent to the hospital for treatment.

Experts suggest: people who often eat street roasted sweet potatoes should be alert to the above three harms. For your health, be cautious about eating street roasted sweet potatoes. If you really like eating roasted sweet potatoes, you might as well make them yourself. You can go to the supermarket to buy fresh, clean raw sweet potatoes with smooth skin, and then roast them in a microwave. A raw sweet potato weighing half a jin is cooked after roasting for 15 minutes. Roasted sweet potatoes made this way are reassuring to eat.

3. Can pregnant women eat roasted sweet potato

Pregnant women can eat some roasted sweet potato in moderation. Roasted sweet potato contains a large amount of high-quality dietary fiber, which is beneficial to gastrointestinal motility, can make people have smooth bowel movements, and is also helpful for eliminating residual stool, so it is especially suitable for people with constipation during pregnancy.

Moreover, sweet potato is rich in potassium. If the human body takes in enough potassium, it will promote the excretion of excess sodium in the blood; eating potassium-rich foods will also promote the balance of mineral levels in the body and ultimately play a certain auxiliary role in lowering blood pressure. So pregnant mothers with high blood pressure can also eat some roasted sweet potato.

In addition, for pregnant mothers with gestational diabetes, roasted sweet potato is also a very good blood sugar-lowering staple food. The selenium in sweet potato can play an auxiliary role in regulating blood sugar.

However, much of the roasted sweet potato sold on the street now is made by roasting with coal, and when coal burns it produces a large amount of sulfur dioxide and carbon oxides, and also produces toxic substances such as arsenic. After sweet potatoes are roasted this way, they are easily contaminated by the above toxic substances. People who eat such contaminated sweet potatoes are prone to poisoning, and in severe cases, their digestive and respiratory systems will be damaged.

So if pregnant mothers want to eat roasted sweet potato, they should try to make it at home, go to the supermarket to buy fresh, clean raw sweet potatoes with smooth skin, and then roast them in a microwave. A raw sweet potato weighing half a jin is cooked after roasting for 15 minutes. Roasted sweet potatoes made this way are more reassuring to eat.

4. Precautions for pregnant women eating roasted sweet potato

1. Now some roasted sweet potato vendors will take sweet potatoes that have grown black spots and roast them as if they were good sweet potatoes to sell. This is harmful to people who eat sweet potatoes. Experts explain that sweet potatoes infected with the black spot fungus will release two toxins, ipomeamarone and ipomeamaronol. These two toxins will make raw sweet potatoes hard and bitter, and boiling in water, steaming or roasting with fire cannot kill the black spot fungus. So if buying roasted sweet potatoes outside, be sure to carefully choose sweet potatoes without black spots.

2. Pregnant women should pay attention to moderation when roasting sweet potatoes here, because sweet potato contains an oxidase, and this enzyme easily produces a large amount of carbon dioxide gas in a person's gastrointestinal tract. If sweet potato is eaten too much, it will make a person bloated, belch, and pass gas. Sweet potato has a relatively high sugar content, and eating too much can stimulate the secretion of a large amount of gastric acid, making a person feel “heartburn”. Because the stomach is stimulated by excess gastric acid, its contractions strengthen, and gastric acid can flow back into the esophagus, causing sour fluid to be vomited. When eating sweet potato, it is best to pair it with a little pickled vegetable, which can effectively inhibit gastric acid.

3. Sweet potato and persimmon should not be eaten at the same time within a short period. If the amount eaten is large, there should be at least five hours or more between them. If eaten at the same time, the sugar in sweet potato ferments in the stomach, which will increase gastric acid secretion and react with the tannins and pectin in persimmon to form precipitates and coagulate, producing hard lumps. In severe cases with a large amount, it can cause gastrointestinal bleeding or cause gastric ulcers.

4. Although sweet potato can be used as a staple food, if it is used as a staple food for a long time, it may cause malnutrition, especially for special groups such as people recovering from a serious illness and pregnant women. People diagnosed in traditional Chinese medicine with dampness obstructing the spleen and stomach, or with qi stagnation and food accumulation, should also eat it cautiously. Diabetic patients should eat it according to medical advice.

5. Sweet potato contains a lot of sugar, and the body cannot absorb it all at once. The remaining part stays in the intestines and easily ferments, causing abdominal discomfort. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that people with dampness obstructing the spleen and stomach, or with qi stagnation and food accumulation, should eat sweet potato cautiously.

5. Homemade method for roasted sweet potato

Preparation materials: 6 sweet potatoes

1. Prepare the sweet potatoes, soak them in clean water to soften the mud on the surface of the sweet potatoes, then scrub them clean with your hands.

2. Drain the water from the washed sweet potatoes.

3. Place a sheet of aluminum foil in the baking tray, then put the sweet potatoes into the baking tray.

4. Then put it into the oven, preheat to 220 degrees, and bake on the middle rack for about 40 minutes.

5. After baking for 20 minutes, turn the sweet potatoes over, and finally bake until thoroughly cooked.