Native to South America, sweet potatoes are also known as "sweet potatoes" and "sweet potatoes" because of their sweet taste, while in some places, sweet potatoes are called "sweet potatoes". It has a long history of cultivation on the mainland.
It is well documented that sweet potatoes were introduced from the Philippines to the southern part of the mainland at the end of the 16th century, and eventually spread out and planted in the southern part of the mainland, and for a long time, sweet potatoes became a life-saving food for farmers. According to some historical records, since sweet potatoes were introduced to China, they have played a decisive role in many famines.
And it was the introduction of crops such as sweet potatoes and corn to China that caused China's population to skyrocket for a period of time, and for a long time, China ranked first in the world in terms of population.
Why can sweet potatoes become life-saving food in every disaster?
Throughout the history of sweet potato planting, it can be seen that sweet potatoes have a great feature in planting, that is, whenever there is not enough food to eat in disaster years, sweet potatoes will be planted in a large area.
The reason for this situation is actually a lot to do with some characteristics of sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are more adaptable, unlike many plants that are more delicate, and can only grow in an environment that they are accustomed to. Sweet potatoes are much more adaptable to the environment.
Different types of soils such as sandy, loam, and clay can be grown, and sweet potatoes are also relatively resistant to high and low temperatures, and can be grown in tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones.
In addition, sweet potatoes are also cold tolerant and barren, because the sweet potato root system is developed, it can go deep into the soil to absorb water and nutrients, which leads to drought tolerance, waterlogging resistance, salinity tolerance, even on barren land, sweet potatoes can be grown.
Sweet potatoes also have a characteristic, that is, the growth cycle is relatively short, generally only 100-120 days can be harvested, conditions permitting, sweet potatoes can be more than a year ripe, in a short time can be harvested.
In addition to these, the yield of sweet potatoes is also very high, the yield per mu can reach 2000-3000 kg, while the yield of rice per mu is mostly only about 500 kg, from which it can be seen that the yield of sweet potatoes per mu can reach up to 6 times that of rice.
In addition to the above characteristics, sweet potatoes themselves have relatively high nutritional value, rich in starch, dietary fiber, vitamins A, C, E and a variety of minerals.
It is its strong adaptability, cold and barren resistance, high yield, fast growth cycle and high nutritional value, so every year of famine, sweet potatoes are called life-saving food, which can feed a large number of people.
Why haven't sweet potatoes become a staple food?
Although sweet potatoes have many advantages and the yield is very high, almost 6 times that of rice, why can rice become a staple food, while sweet potatoes can only become a non-staple food?
As mentioned earlier, sweet potatoes have many advantages, but sweet potatoes are also inferior to rice.
The taste of sweet potatoes is relatively poor, and it is soft and sweet to eat occasionally, but eating this soft and glutinous food for a long time makes people lose their appetite at all. This is because sweet potatoes are rich in starch and water, and the starch and water will gelatinize together after heating, resulting in sweet potatoes that are very soft and glutinous whether they are roasted, steamed, or boiled.
Because sweet potatoes are rich in dietary fiber, this substance is beneficial to the body in the short term, but if you eat it for a long time, the stomach will be the first to can't stand it, which is also the reason why the older generation has eaten too many sweet potatoes in the past years, and after the conditions have improved, they are unwilling to eat sweet potatoes for a lifetime.
Rice is completely different from sweet potatoes in terms of taste, although it is not as sweet as sweet potatoes, but rice is chewy and has a unique rice aroma, and the entrance is more Q-bomb, in this regard, rice is much better than sweet potatoes.
Sweet potato nutrition is not as high as rice, as mentioned earlier, sweet potatoes have higher nutritional value, but this depends on who to compare, although the carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals in sweet potatoes are very high, but the protein content in sweet potatoes is very low, only 1.6 grams of protein in 100 grams of sweet potatoes, and 7-8 grams of protein in 100 grams of rice.
Protein is an indispensable and important substance for the human body, so in terms of nutrition, this is far inferior to rice.
In addition to the above two points, sweet potatoes also have a disadvantage compared with rice, that is, they are not easy to store and are easy to rot and deteriorate, because sweet potatoes have a relatively high water and sugar content, which is easy to breed bacteria and mold.
In addition, the skin of sweet potatoes is relatively thin, which makes them susceptible to mechanical damage, and they are prone to decay after damage. In the past, in order to store sweet potatoes, a cellar would be dug specifically to moisturize the sweet potatoes and increase the storage time of the sweet potatoes. Rice, on the other hand, is not easy to spoil after it is dried and can be stored for a long time.
Compared with rice, sweet potatoes have another disadvantage, that is, they are difficult to process, like rice and flour, after being ground into flour, they can be processed into many foods, such as rice flour and noodles.
However, sweet potatoes are more difficult, and the process of processing them into starch is more troublesome, and they are also easy to clump. Therefore, in terms of processing technology, it is more troublesome than rice, and there are fewer ways to eat it.
Epilogue:
After entering the 90s, due to the increase in rice and wheat production, sweet potatoes gradually withdrew from the ranks of staple foods and gradually marginalized into non-staple foods, but so far, the mainland is still the largest country in sweet potatoes. Taking 2022 data as an example, the mainland's sweet potato production exceeded 47 million tons, which is more than the sum of other countries except China and 29 times that of the United States, the largest food country.
Although sweet potatoes are now used as a non-staple food, but it is undeniable that its role in Chinese history, whenever a disaster comes, the first thing that comes to mind is sweet potatoes, and only the special properties of sweet potatoes can solve the problem of food and clothing for most people in a short period of time.
In the 50s, due to the relatively large food gap in the mainland, sweet potato cultivation was also promoted on a large scale, and at that time, sweet potatoes became the main food for many people and also fed a large part of the population.
I believe that as long as people of a certain age have eaten sweet potatoes more or less, and as long as they have eaten sweet potatoes as a meal, they will basically not want to eat it again after the conditions have improved.
What is your experience with eating sweet potatoes? Do you like to eat sweet potatoes? Or have you eaten too many sweet potatoes and don't really want to eat them in your life, you might as well tell us about your experience and let's talk about it!