One of the strangest mysteries in the acne universe is precisely which remedies climb to the top of the pile.
For example, right now there are probably dozens of women with cucumbers over their eyes, as recommended in blog articles for skin tone. Yet cucumbers have almost no nutrition or special compounds.
Meanwhile, we have the sweet potato. This root vegetable is fantastic for acne, with over 10 powers, but there’s also nothing flashy about it. It’s just a potato with a brown skin.
For psychological reasons buried in the depths of the human mind, the weirdest remedies often convince people; just see snail slime. These rely on a so crazy it has to be true philosophy. But at the same time, you have cucumbers, which don’t even taste nice.
The acneverse works in mysterious ways, but regardless, here are ten reasons why eating sweet potatoes is essentially eating clear skin.
A dire wave of sweet potato deficiency has swept the nation, and here’s why you should put that right.
One – a great carb source
The sweet potato outdoes every other starchy foodstuff in every category. It cannot be beaten, either for acne safety or nutrition.
To clear acne, you have to restrict carbohydrates lest your blood sugar and insulin bubble upwards. The former generates free radicals while the latter is an oily skin expert.
However, you shouldn’t banish carbs completely, except as a hard correction course for two months. I don’t recommend the carnivore diet, for example, which started in niche corners of the internet before reaching even mainstream sports stars recently. Without carbs, you will sink into the “low carb flu” as you fail to manufacture the happiness hormone serotonin. You’ll also be unable to exercise and get the blood pumping through your skin, washing away dullness and grime in a cleansing flood worthy only of Noah’s ark…
…and that’s where sweet potatoes come in. Unlike wheat, sweet potatoes have no gluten. Unlike oats, sweet potatoes have minimal lectins. Unlike high fructose corn syrup, a sweet potato isn’t high fructose corn syrup.
White rice is also harmless, but there’s a reason you have to pour a bucket of spicy sauce on it. There’s no nutrition whatsoever compared to the awe-inspiring offerings of sweet potatoes, which we’ll discuss in a second. Only white potatoes can compete.
Two – long-lived societies love them
If you want to know why you should eat sweet potatoes then simply glance at the people who already are. The Kitavans are a classic example. This tropical island is a paradise of rowing boats, endless sun, and coconuts swaying on palm trees. Its residents are also the healthiest on Earth. As reported by many paleo diet websites, the traditional-living Kitavans are free from “Western style diseases” such as diabetes and heart disease. Even their teeth are blindingly white and cavity free.
Guess what: their diet mostly consists of coconut, fish, tropical fruits, and tubers like cassava and sweet potato.
A second group is the Okinawans. This group of islands is situated in the southern reaches of Japan, just before you cross the feared invisible ocean border into enemy territory (well, 500 years ago maybe). A whole Okinawan diet has sprung up, mainly because they have some of the highest percentages of people living to 100 years.
Their diet is 90% carbs, causing confusion, but sweet potatoes are one of their staples. They also eat traditional tofu and seaweed in abundance. Oysters, shiitake and King Trumpet mushrooms are favourites.
These days, longevity is tied to suppressing free radicals in numerous studies. The other foods can’t be ignored, but the superhuman Okinawans suggest that the sweet potato’s antioxidants are the real deal. We all know what that means for acne – it disappears.
Three – they make you glow
Curing acne is the dream of many teenagers (it’s easier than you think), but getting the glow is becoming just as much as an impossible quest for some people.
“Glow” is talked about in hushed terms, like it’s as elusive as Elvis’ secret hiding place, but all you have to do is eat a sweet potato every other day. Why? The answer is carotenoid antioxidants, including beta-carotene and alpha-carotene.
These plant compounds provide the orange pigments. When eaten, they’re proven to travel through the bloodstream and accumulate in the skin, providing pigment there too.
The physical result is that you can dazzle innocent strangers with your glowing skin. Sweet potatoes can be why an old acquaintance says “you’re looking healthy” after meeting you again. You could be as toxic as a nuclear power plant on the inside (although with sweet potatoes, you probably won’t be) but carotenoids will give you that aura of vitality.
It’s a milder version of the carrots turn you orange fable. You may even look more attractive to the opposite sex; scientists are currently investigating this (without any selfish intentions, I’m sure). The glow could be a noticeable yellow tinge, a sunniness, or it could be imperceptible to the naked eye.
Four – your skin will get less oily
It is very rare in nature for a food to have not one, but two oily skin reducing powers. Then again, most foods aren’t the sweet potato.
Firstly, the carotenoid antioxidants reenter the fray, namely beta-carotene. This is the dominant plant form of vitamin A, as opposed to retinol in animals. Vitamin A is the greatest vitamin for oily skin hands down. Accutane is nothing but a chemically synthesised retinol variant, and your sebaceous glands have special receptors for vitamin A (called retinoid X receptors).
Now, beta-carotene isn’t as effective as retinol. It must be converted first, and some nobly remains behind to fulfil antioxidant duties (which are useful themselves). Some poor souls also contain genes which permanently limit the conversion. However, the benefits will still be plentiful. The second power is increasing your insulin sensitivity. In studies, sweet potatoes have repeatedly increased adiponectin, a protein which enhances insulin’s power, as well as restraining your appetite. Some theorise that sweet potatoes contain adiponectin. The result is that less insulin is needed, the worst hormone for oily skin.
Sweet potatoes are not proven to lower sebum (oil) production, and they definitely won’t cure it 100%, but eat them for two months and your skin may dry out nicely. Wait another two months and this will filter through to lower acne. Oily skin remedies always take time, so be patient and the rewards will be immense.
Five – no FODMAPs or other toxins
Another great advantage is that there no nasty surprises lurking in your sweet potato. The only surprise is that there is no surprise.
Sweet potatoes are free from all the naturally occurring villains that add a note of caution to other great acne foods. For example, it’s on the low FODMAP list, unlike watermelon or apples. FODMAPs are natural short chain carbs like polyols which cause some poor tolerators to explode with acne. Sweet potatoes have no thyroid-interfering goitrogens, unlike broccoli and kale. They lack the mysterious compound that makes a citrus fruits a strangely pro-acne group.
There are no unique sweet potato toxins either. Tomatoes are a nightshade and thus contain glycoalkaloids, namely the unique tomatine. Farmers were once confused to find that cattle eating tomatoes became stiff and decrepit. It’s because of glycoalkaloids attacking your joints, but more importantly, this inflammatory response can spread to the skin. Similarly, the 95% acne-friendly potato contains the glycoalkaloid solanine. This can be peeled off (in a single stroke during a backflip if you’re a master chef), but it lingers in the flesh. Sweet potato contains no glycoalkaloids and no unusual acne villains. Believe it or not, tomatoes are more closely related to potatoes than sweet potatoes are.
The one risk, as with any complex natural food, is a completely random allergy, but these stories are almost unheard of for sweet potatoes. They are a high oxalate food, but sensitivity to oxalates is rare.
Six – they’ll help you beat sugar cravings
A great strategical advantage of sweet potatoes. If you eat a standard American diet, then sweet potatoes probably taste like bland orange mush, like a knock off pumpkin pie sold solely to cash in on Halloween.
However, if you’re sugar restricted, things change massively. Almost all acne patients need to reduce sugar, but words are one thing and action is another. Sugar addiction is a very real problem. It’s not the imagination of a dieting co-worker. Sugar withdrawal causes decreases in the neurotransmitter dopamine, and symptoms like irritability and stress. Sugar causes you to generate your own opioids which you then withdraw from.
Some say that in a battle of willpower versus biology, the latter will always win, but that’s never true when sweet potatoes are by your side. After just days of abstaining from sugar, your sweet taste receptors will resharpen like an old blade. Even a strawberry will taste heavenly. By eating sweet potatoes, you will supply enough sweetness not to ruin your mission, but to partially satisfy your cravings. You’ll be amazed at how sweet this brown-skinned root tuber suddenly becomes. When you’re in the sugar withdrawal state where you’re fantasising about food, dreaming about visiting the land of chocolate where all the delights are just behind an impenetrable plane of glass, you’ll actually be excited to eat sweet potatoes. They’ll become the highlight of your culinary day.
Thus, sweet potatoes are a great way to keep your acne strategy under control. This advantage also feeds into…
Seven – they taste great
Some acne-friendly foods are bitter, like celery. Some are an acquired taste, like garlic and onions. Some are leafy green vegetables and therefore taste like leafy green vegetables.
If you know what acne nutrition you need but are fussy and picky, then sweet potatoes are perfect. They can directly replace the carotenoids of kale and spinach, and the magnesium too.
Sweet potatoes don’t need any extra ingredients to taste great. Cook them at 190C for 35-40 minutes and you are ready. I don’t recommend cooking them in oil, unless you’re president of the soggy mush appreciation society, but they taste fantastic when dipped in boiled egg yolk in place of toast. Actually, using a tiny amount of olive oil tastes great, but it’s a fine balance.
Going back to sugar, once your withdrawal is under way, you will appreciate all the subtle flavours of a sweet potato more. Think of the fine art of sipping red wine or coffee, and apply it to every single food. That’s what reducing sugar can do. It’s like waking up from a haze and seeing everything clearly.
Sweet potatoes also have endless different varieties. Whether it’s from drought in Peru, or the merchant vessel hitting an iceberg and sinking, there’s no predicting which one will appear in your grocery store. Recently, I had a “Covington” one from the US that tasted like perfume (which I’m now avoiding).
NOTE: I still recommend eating some vegetables. If you can’t stand spinach or kale, the best nutritious yet mild one is broccoli.
Eight – they contain magnesium
Sweet potatoes contain 14% of the recommended daily intake for magnesium per 200 grams. That fact alone is sufficient reason to recommend them.
Magnesium is like gold dust in this modern world; they’re depleted in soils in countless vegetables, just like fish stocks in the ocean. Their literally isn’t enough of the mineral for plants to suck into their roots. Meanwhile, other great sources have problems, like nuts, where the magnesium isn’t absorbed well due to phytic acid. Nuts also have other problems. In moderation, they’re great for acne, but the lectins can damage your digestion. Meat and fish are big pieces of the jigsaw puzzle, but they hover around the 10% mark. They cannot supply your needs alone.
Thus, the mysterious, legendary figure of sweet potatoes steps into town. Eat 400 grams every other day, and your magnesium meter will look a lot fuller.
The advantages are huge. Magnesium generates the antioxidant glutathione, which clears acne directly. By fiddling with your neurotransmitters, magnesium can improve chronic stress and help you sleep deeply. Some scientists think that it makes your dreams more vivid; it’ll probably be a ridiculous one like leaving for work and finding that your car is now a 2000 pound sweet potato on wheels.
Nine – they could calm food allergies
Sweet potatoes have a varied stash of non-carotenoid antioxidants too, and one of the main ones is quercetin. Onions and kale reign supreme for quercetin, but sweet potatoes are also great.
The advantage? This flavanol hijacks immune system mast cells in the gut and decreases the production of histamine. That’s the pro-inflammatory chemical most strongly associated with food allergies. It’s the swollen throat savage, the runny nose rioter, but histamine responses are also linked to acne.
Have you ever broken out after eating an orange? The compound triggering the response is unknown, but the response itself is pure histamine. Sweet potato could blunt the power of minor allergies to food. Half of the foods that mast cells target are perfectly safe; it’s just your immune system getting ideas into its head and going commando.
Recently, you might have noticed histamine being discussed more and more on skincare forums and social media. Some are terrified of the small quantities of natural histamine in food (a subject we will discuss soon). Supposedly, quercetin is a stronger anti-histamine substance than the pharmaceutical drug cromolyn, an anti-asthma spray.
The only mystery is the absorption rate. One study found a 52% quercetin absorption rate in onions vs 30% in apples. Sweet potatoes have no data, but as its anti-histamine magic happens in the gut, it might not matter for this power.
Ten – they’re cheap
The final advantage of sweet potatoes is that you won’t waste much money. You won’t appear on a tearful news segment as the man who blew his entire savings on sweet potatoes. They’re not as cheap as white potatoes, but your “habit” would probably cost you just $10 monthly.
You’ll spend more compared to if you got your carbs from breakfast cereal, but you’ll spend less on benzoyl peroxide to clear up the pimples. There are many great strategies for acne, but you should always focus on cheap supplements like this first.
The situation improves further when you consider the sweet potato’s pesticide levels. In short, they’re very low. The one threat is the anti-fungal chemical dicloran, but this is applied after harvesting; they’re dunked in a tub of it.
Therefore, unlike evil heavy metals such as cadmium, it won’t be absorbed into the plant systematically. You can remove most by peeling the skin, and 190C should shatter the molecular bonds that make up this fungicide further. Regular potatoes have far more pesticides.
Some of the best alternatives for sweet potato nutrition are dodgy as well. Kale and spinach (for carotenoids and magnesium) should always be organic as their leafiness greatly increases the surface area where the pesticides can accumulate. Spinach was the second worst pesticide crop in 2019.
All in all, every card is played in the sweet potato’s favour.
Conclusion
There are no more excuses for not eating sweet potatoes. Is there anything they can’t do? Apart from sing the national anthem backwards and travel back in time, they also lack sulphurous compounds compared to some vegetables.
Sulphur helps to manufacture the antioxidant glutathione, which is why cruciferous vegetables (broccoli will suffice, kale/spinach are fantastic if you can afford organic) or onions and garlic are important. The other faults are things that were never a vegetable’s forte anyway, like amino acids, zinc and selenium.
The final reason of our article? You get to tell people that your acne-clearing secret is sweet potatoes and watch the look of disbelief on their face.
Thanks for reading!