Did I buy yams or sweet potatoes?

**slyced** · 10-16-2010, 01:23 PM

They have a brown/reddish skin and are orange on the inside. I thought I was buying sweet potatoes but the lady at the register said they were yams.... The other thing in the yam/sweet potato section was same shape but yellow skin.

I was just about to weigh out portions before cooking and I noticed there was quite a difference in carbs per gram making my portion size quite different. Any ideas?

**morty** · 10-16-2010, 01:31 PM

Pretty sure you have yams, I like them better than sweet potatoes

**bigboomer** · 10-16-2010, 01:32 PM

Sweet potatoes are orange in the middle with reddish brown exterior.And they have a sweeter taste than yams,hence therename and yams are yellow iin the middle with lighter brown exterior.Even the super market confuse themselves because there not sure..So the mix them all up together..Whenever I go to restaurants and order sp,they serve me the darked skinned orange middles so this is how ive concluded these differences between yams and sweet potaoes..I do know there a few differents types of both though..

**slyced** · 10-16-2010, 02:00 PM

Thanks, yeah I've been googling the hell out of this and see there's different types with different colors... Keeping the raw weight the same for both there's a 17g carbs/serving size difference for my portion size! Wish there was some way to know for sure :/

**bigboomer** · 10-16-2010, 02:20 PM

From what ive read in north america sweet potatoes are orange in the middle yams are yellow..Maybe some other can chime in here...

**bigslick7878** · 10-16-2010, 02:50 PM

Yes sweet potatoes are orange-ish in the middle, no clue what yams look like.

**steroidsarebad** · 10-16-2010, 03:22 PM

This thread is an interesting read regarding the subject:

http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...atoes-the-same

**slyced** · 10-16-2010, 03:35 PM

Thanks everyone, I'm thinking I bought yams since the yellow skinned product was most likely sweet potato and they had both yams and sweet potato.

Crazy the difference in grams/carbs though.

260g raw sweet potato = 45g carbs
188g raw yams = 45 carbs

**gbrice75** · 10-16-2010, 05:56 PM

Yams are usually a little longer and skinnier. Sweet potatoes look more like regular potatoes but are longer... but not as long as yams, and definitely fatter.

**Cousinbutch** · 10-16-2010, 06:04 PM

If they were labeled yams/sweet potato they're just two varieties of sweet potato. Yams aren't very common in the US, we just call softer sweet potatoes yams. Actual yams would be more pricey than sweet potatoes also.

**Cousinbutch** · 10-16-2010, 06:07 PM

[QUOTE=bigboomer;5392301And they have a sweeter taste than yams[/QUOTE]
Ironically real yams are usually more sweet than sweet potatoes.

**bigboomer** · 10-16-2010, 06:17 PM

Originally Posted by Cousinbutch

Ironically real yams are usually more sweet than sweet potatoes.

lol...My heads hurts! I think what i have thought were sweet potatoes are actually yams..LOL...**** it...

**slyced** · 10-17-2010, 12:06 PM

Originally Posted by bigboomer

lol...My heads hurts! I think what i have thought were sweet potatoes are actually yams..LOL...**** it...

yeah no shit man..me too... whatever the hell i got, tastes pretty damn good

**matt77** · 10-17-2010, 12:20 PM

Well around the south I have never seen a yam in any regular store. We have sweet potatoes and thats it. Now we do have canned yams but I swear they are sweet potatoes too not real yams.