What is the difference between a sweet potato and yam?

[pkrahmer]

I love sweet potato. It is one of my comfort foods this time of year. I know there's a difference between sweet potato and yams but no one has ever told me what it is. Does anyone know the difference?

[acurtsinger2]

i only eat yams on thanksgiving,  i just never cared for them much.  and the difference is that regular potatos have more starch.

[Bluejay49]

I don't know, but all orange veggies are delicious

[LaTashaS28]

The difference between a sweet potato is that the yams are the sweet potato but it is just called yams.

[Linda67]

Yams are the bright orange ones and sweet potatoes are more yellow.  I think they taste about the same.

[kapeh12]

Interesting topic - I always thought sweet potatoes and yams were two names for the same thing.  Didn't think they were two different foods.  Never cared for the taste of them, so never really looked that closely at them in the store.

[glenda1bruce]

Yams and sweet potatoes are basicly the same thing the only difference is yams are yams because they are canned in heavy syrup and sweet potaoes are fresh.  they pretty much taste the same if you mash them and bake them in the oven with marshmellows.  So you could say that a yam is a processed sweet potaote.  That is what I always thought.

[poppy1]

Sweet potatoes have vitamin A and Yams have vitamin C, sweet potatoes are low in calories and have no fat. Both have Potassium. Sweet potatoe helps to protect you against heart attack and stroke, and the Yam helps to fight cancers I believe. My wife just tells me there good for us when she bakes the sweet potatoes. So, I eat them!

[ancmetro]

        It is a very good question! Can someone elaborate or tell us something about this question? A nutritionist or a farmer probably knows the differences.

[dreamyxo]

http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookvegetables/a/sweetpotatodiff.htm

In America we tend to use the names yam and sweet potato interchangeably but a true yam and a sweet potato are not the same. 

Yam or sweet potato, what in the world is it? Many people use these terms interchangeably both in conversation and in cooking, but they are really two different vegetables.

Sweet Potatoes
Popular in the American South, these yellow or orange tubers are elongated with ends that taper to a point and are of two dominant types. The paler-skinned sweet potato has a thin, light yellow skin with pale yellow flesh which is not sweet and has a dry, crumbly texture similar to a white baking potato. The darker-skinned variety (which is most often called "yam" in error) has a thicker, dark orange to reddish skin with a vivid orange, sweet flesh and a moist texture.

Current popular sweet potato varieties include Goldrush, Georgia Red, Centennial, Puerto Rico, New Jersey, and Velvet.

Yams
The true yam is the tuber of a tropical vine (Dioscorea batatas) and is not even distantly related to the sweet potato.

Slowly becoming more common in US markets, the yam is a popular vegetable in Latin American and Caribbean markets, with over 150 varieties available worldwide.

Generally sweeter than than the sweet potato, this tuber can grow over seven feet in length.

The word yam comes from African words njam, nyami, or djambi, meaning "to eat," and was first recorded in America in 1676.

The yam tuber has a brown or black skin which resembles the bark of a tree and off-white, purple or red flesh, depending on the variety. They are at home growing in tropical climates, primarily in South America, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Yams contain more natural sugar than sweet potatoes and have a higher moisture content. They are also marketed by their Spanish names, boniato and ñame.

[jkhanson]

I always thought that yams and sweet potatoes were the same thing....just 2 names for some reason.  Your post made me curious to find out.  I like SWEET POTATOES.

I went to ASK to find out the answer.  This is what I found:



In the United States, the term "yam" is usually mistakenly used to label orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. Yams—thick, white tubers with little flavor—are actually not related to sweet potatoes at all. Sweet potatoes originated in South America and come in dozens of varieties; the orange-fleshed ones in question are only eaten in the United States. Yams, on the other hand, are rarely available in the United States, though they are popular in South and Central America, the West Indies, many Pacific islands, and parts of Asia and Africa. Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes have a rich, sweet flavor; yams are particularly bland, starchy vegetables that are best used as a background for more flavorful accompaniments. Sweet potatoes typically have a smooth skin, while the skin of yams is rough and somewhat shaggy.

In the supermarket, you will generally see what is technically a sweet potato labeled as a yam. You are unlikely to find a true yam at your average supermarket, so if you are shopping for sweet potatoes, you should be safe putting a "yam" in your cart. When our recipes call for yams as substitutes, we are referring to red-skinned, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes that have been labeled as yams—not the white-fleshed, bland tuber.

[sommap]

Interesting.  I buy both the ones labeled sweet potatoes and yams.  I like to bake them.  I usually just put butter on them.  If you want to use up some calories, brown sugar and marshmallows can also be used as a topping.

[ajann1983]

wow. i didn't know that. i thought they were the same thing.

[MessiahMews]

Interesting topic - I always thought sweet potatoes and yams were two names for the same thing.  Didn't think they were two different foods.  Never cared for the taste of them, so never really looked that closely at them in the store.

I always thought they were the same too.

We boil them and make them into mashed potatoes.