I Ate Sweet Potatoes Every Day For 1 Month to See How It Affected My Energy, Digestion, and Weight

I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 13 (31 years!), became vegan in my early 20s, but started eating eggs (from my neighbor’s free-range chickens) about six years ago because I thought I needed more protein. It didn’t make me feel more energized, and it didn’t help me get leaner. Six months ago, after reading so much about the benefits of a high-carb, low-fat plant-based diet, I went back to eating vegan, and focused on eating more whole foods.

So many doctors like John McDougall, MD, who wrote The Starch Solution, Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr, MD, author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, and Thomas M. Campbell II, MD, who wrote the well-known book The China Study all share the same message: that we need whole-food, plant-based starches like whole grains, legumes, and potatoes for satiety.

Since sweet potatoes are my absolute favorite starch (actually one of my favorite foods in general), I knew it’d be a breeze to do this experiment! And since I had three different kinds – the well-known orange, the Japanese, and the purple – I knew I wouldn’t get bored.

With the low-carb craze, I had always feared eating too many sweet potatoes because they’re a high-carb food, but once I researched more about the benefits of a high-carb, low-fat vegan diet, and heard so many people on YouTube (like Plantiful Kiki) share how eating carbs like potatoes helped them feel full and energized, and lose weight, I had to see for myself.

I don’t weight or measure my food, but I was curious to know the nutritional info of the daily sweet potato I was eating. Of the three varieties I roasted, they were generously-sized weighing about 400 grams (sometimes 500). Here’s the nutritional info from VeryWell.com for 400 grams of a regular sweet potato (left) and a Japanese sweet potato (right).

90 percent of the time, I ate my sweet potato with one-pound (16 ounces) of steamed veggies, which is just a small bag you’d get in the freezer section. It offered about 125 calories, so this was a perfectly-sized 500- to 600-calorie meal for me. When I first started eating this lunch, I’d sprinkle Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel Seasoning on the veggies, but after a week or so, I really enjoyed it plain!

People often ask vegans, “Where do you get your protein?” Just look at the protein from the sweet potato! The pound of broccoli adds another 10 grams.

Whenever I eat refined carbs like a bowl of pasta, a sandwich, bagel, or pancakes, I always feel so blah afterward. Anything made with flour just zaps my energy and makes me feel foggy-headed, and all I want to do is relax on the couch. Can you relate?

When I ate my sweet potato, which was usually between 12 noon and 1 p.m., I experienced so much energy! I felt vibrant, clear-headed, and inspired to walk on my treadmill desk after eating.

I loved pairing my sweet potato with steamed veggies. The combo allowed me to eat a huge meal since the veggies are so low in calories, and the veggies, I’m sure, also helped with my increased energy.

Eating a starch like sweet potatoes every day at lunch made me feel so full and satisfied. My hunger was satiated for hours – way longer than eating beans on a huge salad, bean and veggie soup, or tofu with veggies, which were my typical lunch options before this experiment. (By the way, this is a purple sweet potato topped with wild rice and a few spoonfuls of leftover split pea soup.)

I also found that eating sweet potatoes positively affected my mood. I just felt so happy! I looked forward to my delicious, filling lunch every day, and afterward, I felt energized and pumped for the rest of the day.

I typically would crave something sweet in the mid-afternoon, like fruit, a rice cake with jam, or some chocolate, most often to boost my mood. But with my happy feelings, I didn’t feel like I needed something sweet to uplift me. My sugar cravings were definitely diminished during this month of eating sweet potatoes. I wasn’t expecting that!

If you don’t like bathroom details, you probably want to skip this part. As a plant-based eater, I eat so much fiber that I tend to get bloated, especially when I eat a lot of beans (which is normal). But during this monthlong experiment, I found that sweet potatoes were so easy to digest, and they never made me bloated. I also liked that my stomach never felt heavy after eating them, the way whole grains like rice can sometimes make me feel.

After eating sweet potatoes every day for a month, I ended up looking leaner, especially in my face, arms, upper back, and waist – another bonus I wasn’t expecting! I honestly thought I’d gain weight because so many experts say to cut carbs if you’re trying to lose weight. I was eating way more, but as Langevin explained, it was the “right” carbs because they were complex carbs.

Eating sweet potatoes was so satiating, as I mentioned, and it helped cut down on my sugar cravings, so I was definitely eating less baked goods, chocolate, and bread. I honestly wasn’t into them as much, because if I was, I would have eaten them since, thanks to intuitive eating, I don’t restrict any foods I truly want.

With benefits to my energy levels, digestion, decreased sugar cravings and looking leaner, and the fact that sweet potatoes are absolutely delicious, yes, I’m definitely going to continue eating sweet potatoes regularly.

I like to roast a big batch twice a week so I have some for me and some for family dinners. I wash the potatoes, leave them whole (I don’t even poke holes in them!), and bake them at 400 degrees for about an hour, or until they are soft when I squeeze them.

I’ll take three glass containers and add one cooked and cooled sweet potato to each of them with about a pound of frozen veggies. So with hardly any effort at all, three simple and satiating lunches are meal-prepped!