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Have you ever eaten a sweet potato and shortly after felt a “grumpy stomach” coming? I might have the answer for you today somewhere in the 5 reasons why you might not be able to digest sweet potatoes.

Would you rather listen to this post? I have recorded it so you can listen to it if you prefer.

For the record, sweet potatoes, on almost any given “diet,” should be tolerated. 

After all, they are on the gut healthy food list.

But let’s face it. You are here today because when you eat a sweet potato, your stomach gets grumpy, rumbling, and gassy. Sort of like this….

Is your grumpy, growling, gassy and just overall discomfort fairly instant?

The first few times it happened I thought,

Nope. Not from the sweet potato of course. How could it be?

The sweet potato is healthy; generally touted as a power food and one of the World’s Healthiest Foods.

Like many other “healthy-for-us-foods,” when the gut is compromised “healthy” is not always that simple.

Many health reports have told us for years that we need to choose brown rice over white rice and sweet potatoes over white potatoes.

But when the brown rice was hurting me, I dug into that topic a little more, too.

Turns out, if the gut bacteria balance is off, brown rice can be too difficult to digest. Why? Because…. fiber.

Brown rice rocks and has more fiber than white rice.

The problem lies within the fiber “coating” rice contains. It can be difficult to digest. White rice has been stripped of that, so while the fiber consumption diminishes, the digestibility greatly improves.

I tested the theory – over and over and over again. I digest white rice just fine, but not brown rice.

Being the food detective I am (and the perfect “guinea pig” on myself), I decided to research and test different things with the sweet potato.

 

5 Reasons Why You Might Not be Able to Digest Sweet Potatoes

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Oxalates

If you cannot digest sweet potatoes due to oxalates, your joints could be achy or you might experience things not necessarily “the gut,” but are ultimately outputs from the digestive system. (p.s. Everything is!)

I’ve written all about oxalates HERE.

Fiber

In one medium sweet potato, there are 5g of sugar and 4g of fiber.

It is a very starchy food and therefore with a less-than-optimal gut microbiome, sweet potatoes could trigger an issue like fructose malabsorption or even feed into certain bacterial imbalances.

{And that “stinkiness” you may experience? It’s likely the carbohydrates from the starchy potato fermenting in your gut.} 

Root Vegetable

The sweet potato is a root vegetable that belongs to the morning glories family. If you have problems with root vegetables (i.e. beets, carrots, celery, onion, potatoes, turnips, etc.), sweet potatoes will be hard for you, too.

Combinations

Even on their own, many have a hard time with sweet potatoes. However, one other reason people with gut issues don’t digest them well is because of the other food(s) eaten with them.

Adding additional sugar to them or eating with a burger or steak can make digestion very tricky as the body is trying to process too many things at once.

For this, you might consider a high-quality digestive enzyme.

Amylose

Amylose is one of the major types of digestible polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates. Sweet potatoes contain a lot of amylose, and while that is great for those “dieting,” it’s not necessarily for those with complicated guts.

This is also the reason why the digestive enzymes I take and recommend contain amylase, to help break this down. Unfortunately, it’s not always enough.

BTW – I’ve investigated sweet potatoes even more. HERE are more reasons why you might not be able to digest them.

It Should Not be This Hard to Digest Sweet Potatoes

The real and raw truth – the truth that you might not want to hear – is that sweet potatoes should not be this hard to digest.

I don’t know very many people with normally functioning guts that have the problems with sweet potatoes as the Gutsy women do.

The reason you cannot tolerate them could very well likely be due to a leaky gut, SIBO, and/or another gut infection.

All three of those could and likely are resulting in this food intolerance.

You can use a 90-day gut healing journal to help identify if sweet potatoes are truly making you miserable with my 90-day food journal, Healing Blooms from Within.

If you’re not interested in following a templated diet, but instead want to learn to create your own based on your unique situation, then you’ll love my book, A Gutsy Girl’s Bible: a 21-day approach to healing the gut. In it, you’ll find 100+ Creations. Grab your copy on Amazon HERE.

Or, have this book at your fingertips instantly by downloading the PDF now.

p.s. Today I’m able to eat sweet potatoes freely because I healed my gut.

If you liked this post, you might also enjoy:

1. Why Can’t I Digest Eggs
2. Can I Eat These Top 12 Vegetables?
3. 30-Day Gut Reset

Xox,
SKH