Starving Artists: Starving Artists -> I'm Yammin'

Since I’ve been on WW, I’ve been baking potatoes and yams for two reasons. For one reason, they are considered to be “filler” foods and, two, because they are low-budget foods. Not that they cost less (well, maybe) and fit my budget, but they are low in calories, great for those on a low-calorie diet.

I LOVE candied yams and baked yams with Molasses syrup, but I never really cared for them without the extra sweeteners. However, being on a diet will cause one to reconsider options worth filling up the tum-tums. I found I actually enjoy baked yams. They are actually naturally sweet and they DO satisfy my tum-tums, a huge concern for me these days.

Recently when I was at the market, I saw sweet potatoes and wondered which of the two would be sweeter. I knew I‘d like baked sweet potatoes because I’ve had my share of sweet potato pies. Mmmm, delish! Love ‘em! I was going to ask the grocer and even other people, but I didn’t want a subjective response, so I decided to do some research. I found a lot of interesting things about yams, probably trivial things to some people, but I hope not trivial to others. Anyways, what I found was that yams are not really yams.

All my life I’ve known them to be and have called them yams. Now I find they’re really not yams. So what are they then? Believe it or not, they are sweetpotatoes! Yah, sweetpotatoes, written as one word! I couldn’t believe it. Growing up I learned to distinguish them by their color and shape, let alone learning to write it in two words. Now I find out they are one and the same. Good thing I adjust well to changes. Well, maybe not in the beginning, but afterward, I do adjust quite nicely. So for the sake of peace, I’ll write it as two words from here on out.

So, now, yams are sweet potatoes, I have to remember that. Being native to Central and South Americas, their scientific name is Ipomoea batatas and they produce a storage root. They share a blooming flower of the Morning Glory family. I love the flower Morning Glory, it’s so beautiful, not to mention the name. Sweet potatoes come in varieties of “firm” and “soft” ones, not to mention the colors and shapes available. In the US, the firm sweet potatoes already existed and called sweet potatoes, so when the “soft” ones were being cultivated another name was needed to avoid confusion. Yah, I can understand that!

African slaves had already been calling the “soft” ones nyami because they resembled theirs from back home. I also read “nyami” derives from the African word “to eat.” Thus, the name yam remained to make the distinction between the firm and soft sweet potatoes. Today the USDA requires labels with the term “yam” to be accompanied by the term “sweet potato.” But, honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever come across both terms alongside each other at the market. They are either labeled “sweet potato” or “yam” and usually they are labeled to those I’ve grown to know and love all my life. No wonder it’s confusing.





The true yam is not commercially grown widely in the United States, but it is found in international markets from what I’ve gathered. I understand they are usually hard to find, but is s-l-o-w-l-y making its way around markets. Native to Africa and Asia, their scientific name is Dioscorea Species. I read somewhere online they are in the same class as lilies. There are over 600 varieties of yams, which 95% of these crops are grown in Africa, but I’ve also read they’re grown in the Caribbean and Latin America because of tropical and temperate tropical climates.



Yams produce root tubers, which are generally toxic if consumed raw. True yams must be cooked in order to consume them. So don’t be gettin’ slap-happy ‘cause you found them and go juicing yams. They’ve got to be cooked! You know, true yams don’t even resemble sweet potatoes. They look quite distinct. From what I’ve read and pictures I’ve seen, their skin can be brown or dark-brown, sometimes almost black, like a bark of a tree and can have anywhere from white, red, purple flesh depending on the variety and they can grow as small as a regular potato and up to over seven feet.



I’ve found conflicting info concerning its consistency. Some say it’s starchier and drier that sweet potatoes, while others say it has a higher moisture content, but I’m not sure since I haven’t eaten the real deal just yet. Though, I did read they are generally sweeter than sweet potatoes.

So there you have it! More than likely we all have had sweet potatoes. Whether you distinguish them as either sweet potatoes or yams, in the end, they are probably sweet potatoes. Yams…sweet potatoes…yams…sweet potatoes, which is it? Both are one and the same, unless of course, you specifically go search for a true yam.