The Surprising Food You Can Absolutely Substitute for Meat

As far as the vitamins and minerals that meats provide, the only ones to worry about are the water-soluble ones. Those guys are the ones we need every day.

If you’ve been getting them through meat and suddenly you take that meat away, well, you need an alternative. You probably wouldn’t want to risk a deficiency that can hinder your decision to be vegetarian or vegan, for example. By the way, I definitely already did that.

There are 9 water-soluble vitamins essential every day: biotin, pantothenic acid, folate, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, and C. Tip: that’s really just B-complex and C. 

If I heard about a food that gives you a substantial amount of 7 out of 9, even I would think it were meat. But it’s not. It’s a sweet potato.

Chicken and beef provide 4, including B12. With that in mind it might actually be 3, because there’s debate over whether or not everybody needs to worry about B12. ( I think they do. )

“Meats” like salmon and tuna I won’t discuss, because often they are either farmed or contaminated.

The highest I could find was turkey with 5, including B12. But the sweet potato surpasses all meats in number of water-soluble essentials.

Let’s check the percent daily values:

1. Biotin: nearly 30%
2. Pantothenic acid: over 30%
3. B1: almost 20%
4. B2: over 15%
5. B3: almost 20%
6. B6: nearly 35%
7. C: over 50%

Achieving 100% of all 9, to me, is unnecessary. It’s the same way the body doesn’t need a complete protein at every meal – or even every day. Side note: a future post about amino acids is coming up! 

With just 1 cup of baked sweet potato, you’re pretty much good for 7.

This is almost like a joke

Most percents DV are for pre-cooked food, but I already accounted for degradation upon cooking. Translation: yay! 

Additionally, sweet potatoes are medium glycemic index whereas regular potatoes are high. Meaning, the sweet ones digest more slowly and evenly.

Even the lazy cooking options are sweet, indeed.

Mash it

Steam it

Bake it

Roast it

Soup it

By the way, if you don’t read my captions you are missing out.

You need sweet potatoes in your life! Be elaborate, sometimes.

Biscuits

Enchiladas

Fries

Stuffed

Vegan ice cream

Veggie burgers

I used to think sweet potatoes were simply the substitute food. But you know what, they may even be superior…

Okay. Bye!