Meet Our New Blogger, Joanne Tehrani!

Greetings sweet potato lovers! I am registered dietitian, Joanne Tehrani. I am happy to be a guest blogger sharing information about nutrition and health issues. From time to time I will be answering readers' questions and sharing healthy recipes and food shopping tips. Enjoy!

The Sweet Potato ONLY Diet

The cabbage soup diet, the grapefruit diet, the egg diet, and my personal favorite - the cookie diet! There are countless diets out there promising fast results that involve eating only one food while eliminating others.

I recently read that Glee star Matthew Morrison went on a 3-day sweet potato and water ONLY diet to prepare for an upcoming photo shoot. The article did not specify how many sweet potatoes he was eating or how they were prepared (or if any of this is even true) but we do know he binged on pizza and pasta afterwards!

As a nutrition professional, I get asked about this type of diet all the time - whether or not it works, and if it is safe. Before I comment on this, I need to remind everyone that before you go on any type of eating plan or diet, it is important that yous peak with your doctor first. Now, here are my thoughts about this diet:

The Good

1. Sweet potatoes are delicious and nutritious. They are high in vitamins A, C, potassium, manganese and iron.
2. They are fat free and naturally sweet.
3. One sweet potato contains only about 100 calories. That means big flavor for very few calories.
4. They are chock full of fiber, which can help you feel full longer and may keep your from overeating throughout the day.
5. Sweet potatoes are extremely versatile and can be prepared hundreds of different ways. Did you see all of our contest entries? This makes them an excellent delivery system to incorporate other foods into your diet.

The Not-So-Good

1. Sweet potatoes are loaded with nutrients, however, no one food contains all the nutrients in the amounts necessary for the body to perform at its peak. Every nutrient is necessary and each one has a specific job.
2. Many fad diets are extremely low i energy in the form of calories. Too few calories can make your body eat up muscle for energy which will ultimately slow down your metabolism. When this happens, your body starts to go into "starvation mode" by conserving what little energy it gets from food. In turn, it becomes very difficult to burn calories and keep excess weight off. The best way to explain this is to think of your metabolism as a burning campfire. In order to keep that fire burning, you need to put small logs (food) on it continually. If we stop putting logs on it, it will eventually burn out. You want to keep that fire burning!
3. Going on a restrictive diet often leads to binges and subsequent weight gain.

The best thing to remember is the key to a healthy and balanced diet is diversity. By incorporating all of the colors of the rainbow, you are more likely to get the nutrients that you need. And, it is important to eat the foods you like. It's okay to have a piece of cake at the office party! I highly recommend preparing foods at home as often as possible like the ones include on this blog. Try a few and let me know how you feel!