Sweet Potato Greens - The Unsung Nutrition Powerhouse

You can eat sweet potato greens too?

You may know sweet potatoes as those delicious, vitamin-packed veggies that can be used as a substitute for potatoes. However, not too many people are aware that sweet potato leaves also carry a lot of health benefits and can be eaten in myriad ways. After growing and trying the sweet potato tops your first time, you’ll be wondering why sweet potatoes and their nutritious greens are not in the market. Yes, every part of this amazing vegetable is not only edible – but healthy too.

In Costa Rica the common sweet potato variety is known as the camote. They are in the Convolvulaceae family with flowering morning glory vines. The sweet potato leaves are excellent sources of antioxidant compounds, mainly polyphenols, which may protect the human body from oxidative stress that is associated with many diseases including cancer and cardiovascular diseases. They are also rich in vitamin B, ßcarotene, iron, calcium, zinc and protein. In addition, the crop is more tolerant of diseases, pests and high moisture than many other leafy vegetables grown in the tropics.

The actual sweet potatoes vary in nutrient content by species, but in general, raw sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber and beta-carotene, while having moderate contents of other micronutrients, including vitamin B5, vitamin B₆, manganese and potassium.

Below in the pictures, Jodi just made an excellent salad using camote greens. The leaves can be eaten raw or cooked.

An interesting study by Georgia State University even found that the polyphenol-rich sweet potato leaves inhibit proliferation and induce cell death in prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Here’s the link to the full post: Sweet Potato Greens Vs. Prostate Cancer . It’ll be great to see more research on this unsung healthy hero……the sweet potato green.

One other awesome thing about the camote plant is that you’ll always have left over greens to share with your livestock. We give 10-20 lbs of camote greens to our chickens and ducks when we clean up. They devour them. It’s another great perennial ‘twofer’ because not only do we eat it, we also feed it to our livestock.

Camotes are easy to grow from cutting and they can handle poor soil, hot sun and neglect. Learn more by checking out our Survival Plant database profile on the camote.