A commercial for three new sides at Wendy’s caught my attention this weekend. They lead with macaroni and cheese, my “desert island” food of choice; then, chili cheese fries; and rounded out the trio with a baked sweet potato. Now we’re talking!

Baked sweet potatoes are one of my very favorite foods. Particularly, I love them for lunch. In fact, they are a staple around the DietsInReview.com office; someone is always warming one up at noon. I usually bake two or three over the weekend and then take halves to work each day (perfect with my black bean turkey chili). Now, it’s good to know if I forget and really need something healthy and quick, Wendy’s can take care of me.

Leery of even the healthiest foods at a fast food restaurant, I went straight to the restaurant’s web site. There I learned I have nothing to fear, except maybe the cinnamon butter spread.

The potato itself is listed as just a sweet potato, no other additives. They bake this for an hour in each store, and then serve it to you piping hot. It has 260 calories, 0 grams of fat, 9 grams of fiber, 6 grams of protein, and more than 1000% of your daily need for vitamin A. These are the nutritional stats for any sweet potato. The ten-ounce sweet potato that they serve (or .6 pounds) is a whopper of a potato; it’s a full four ounces heavier than what is considered a large sweet potato.
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Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is a Jewish holiday that celebrates an ancient battle victory and the re-dedication of a holy temple in Jerusalem. Though it isn’t the holiest Jewish holiday, it is one of the most anticipated; it typically falls within several weeks of Christmas and is associated with the festive holiday season.

Like other winter holidays, there are a number of traditional dishes that are essential to the Hanukkah celebration. It can be difficult if you are on a diet or trying to maintain a healthy weight, especially since the Hanukkah celebration lasts eight nights as opposed to many other holidays, which last one or two.

“As with any holiday, plan to allow yourself a little bit of indulgence,” said Aviva Goldfarb, author of The Scramble. “Different people have different traditions. I don’t bake a lot of cookies during the holidays but my family loves sweet potato pie as a side dish. I also make latkes baked or pan fried in less oil.”

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Not only are sweet potatoes readily available, inexpensive, and delicious, there are many other reasons to love these yummy vegetables. Here are 9:

1. They are high in vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 helps reduce the chemical homocysteine in our bodies. Homocysteine has been linked with degenerative diseases, including the prevention of heart attacks.

2. They are a good source of vitamin C. While most people know that vitamin C is important to help ward off cold and flu viruses, few people are aware that this crucial vitamin plays an important role in bone and tooth formation, digestion, and blood cell formation. It helps accelerate wound healing, produces collagen which helps maintain skin’s youthful elasticity, and is essen­tial to helping us cope with stress. It even appears to help protect our body against toxins that may be linked to cancer.

3. They contain Vitamin D which is critical for immune system and overall health at this time of year. Both a vitamin and a hormone, vitamin D is primarily made in our bodies as a result of getting adequate sunlight. You may have heard about seasonal affective disorder (or SAD, as it is also called), which is linked to inadequate sunlight and therefore a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D plays an important role in our energy levels, moods, and helps to build healthy bones, heart, nerves, skin, and teeth, and it supports the thyroid gland.

4. Sweet potatoes contain iron. Most people are aware that we need the mineral iron to have adequate energy, but iron plays other important roles in our body, including red and white blood cell production, resistance to stress, proper im­mune functioning, and the metabolizing of protein, among other things.

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When you think of picnic salads, you probably think of fattening classics like coleslaw, potato salad and macaroni salad. Not only are these traditional salads laden with saturated fat and empty calories, they’re usually bound with mayonnaise, which makes them susceptible to spoilage.

Instead of looking to the usual suspects next time you’re asked to bring a dish to a potluck picnic, opt for something mayo-free that will keep well at room temperature and help you stick to a healthy diet.

Instead of coleslaw…

Apple Slaw: Full of fresh, crunchy apples and mixed with low-fat yogurt, this slaw has less than a hundred calories per serving and is a great alternative to a fuller-fat version.

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The Food and Drug Administration determined many years ago that there was no definitive link between artificial food colorings and health problems in children or adults. However, it recently decided to review the evidence and consider possible policy changes that include placing warning labels on food containing the artificial colorings.

Dr. Jeffrey A. Morrison, MD, author of Cleanse Your Body, Clear Your Mind has studied the links between toxins and chemicals in our food and environment to health and behavior. He advises his patients to avoid all artificial colorings and food dyes whenever possible.

“Artificial food colorings and dyes have been used for many years but only recently have they been under investigation with the FDA,” Morrison said. “In particular, red dyes have been known to cause hyperactivity and gastrointestinal discomfort in children and adults.”

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