Taro root is a starchy vegetable which was originally cultivated in Asia but is now used in a variety of cuisines around the world. It tastes almost exactly like a white potato when cooked and is a healthier alternative than the potato, which is a nightshade vegetable containing compounds such as nicotine, atropine and solanine, all of which are bad for our health.
It’s good to learn about some of the many health benefits of taro root. Before I get to that I want to state that taro root should never be consumed raw. It contains a bitter tasting compound called calcium oxalate which can cause an itchy mouth and throat when consumed raw but is safe to eat when cooked. This is yet another example of what the ancient doctors meant when they stated that some vegetables had some problems associated with them which would go away once they were cooked. We now know, for example that kale contains goitrogens which depress the thyroid gland, but 60% of it evaporates out when cooked. And spinach and other green leafy vegetables such as Swiss chard, kale and collard greens contain oxalates which could cause kidney stones, but about 60% of them also evaporate out when cooked.
Taro root is very versatile and can be used in recipes which call for white potatoes. In fact they can even be made into fries — just cut them into long narrow thin slices, drizzle them with olive oil and salt and bake in the oven. They can also be used to thicken vegetable soups — once pureed in the soup the broth becomes slightly thick and velvety.
Taro root has polyphenols which have some great health benefits, among them the capability of preventing certain types of cancer cells from growing. Plus the taro root contains quercitin, which also prevents tumor growth.
And taro root contains more than 160% of your minimum daily requirement of Vitamin A which also prevents the growth of cancer cells, and at the same time clears the complexion. It can even prevent skin damage caused by sun exposure and air pollution.
This is a good source of starch for diabetics who miss eating starches in their diet since so many of them have a high glycemic index and can raise the blood sugar. Taro root gives you the feeling that you’re eating potatoes and seems very starchy but there are several reasons why taro root would actually help to improve the blood sugar — it has a low glycemic index and it contains fiber which humans can’t digest which means it won’t create a spike in the blood sugar since it’s not absorbed. It also helps slow down the digestion and absorption of other carbohydrates, preventing large blood sugar spikes after meals.
Taro root contains a special type of starch known as a resistant starch that humans can’t digest and therefore does not raise blood sugar levels. Roughly 12% of the starch in cooked taro root is resistant starch, making it one of the better sources of this nutrient.
This combination of resistant starch and fiber makes taro root a good carbohydrate option, especially for people with diabetes.
Let’s take a detour here and talk a little about resistant starches since they are making lots of headlines nowadays and are talked about in so many blogs and podcasts. Most of the carbohydrates in your diet are starches. Starches are long chains of glucose that are found in grains, potatoes and some other foods. But not all of the starch you eat gets digested. Sometimes a small part of it passes through your digestive tract unchanged. In other words, it is resistant to digestion, which is why it is called a resistant starch. It can actually make its way past your stomach and small intestine eventually reaching your colon or large intestine where it feeds your friendly gut bacteria.
The bacteria in your intestines, the gut flora, outnumber the body’s cells 10 to 1. So you can think of it like this: most of the food you eat nourishes 10% of your body. But the resistant starches and other fermentable fibers, or soluble fibers feed the other 90% of your body. And even more important, when the bacteria in your gut digest the resistant starches, they form several compounds including butyrate. If you recall from some of my other videos, butyrate is the preferred fuel of the cells that line your colon. And yet one more time, I’ll make a quick reference to ghee, the most beloved fat used all throughout Ayurveda: ghee contains more butyrate than just about any food on the planet. But I digress, back to taro root and its numerous health benefits.
Many studies in humans now show that resistant starch can have other powerful health benefits than those just mentioned. This includes increased insulin sensitivity, the responsiveness of your body’s cells to insulin, resulting in lower blood sugar levels after meals and reduced appetite (since the food stays in your stomach longer) making it easier to lose weight.
In my practice we also use taro root during our spring and fall cleanses. As we cleanse and pull the toxins out of the deeper tissues, we want to bind them and direct them out into the bowel movement. We use okra and taro root to bind these toxins, because both contain some “slimy” compounds which can attach to the toxins and drag them out into the intestines, which is important because if you cleanse without binding the toxins, they could potentially roam throughout your body, wreaking havoc wherever they go.
And finally, for the multitudes following a low carb and keto-based diet, not that I recommend it, but at least here you have the feeling of eating a starch, but the type of starch taro supplies would definitely be indicated in any of these two diets.
I hope you try to incorporate taro root into your diet, especially if you are avoiding the nightshade vegetables and are missing the potatoes, or if you are afraid to eat too many starchy foods due to your diabetes or restrictive low carb or keto diets. Taro root will definitely come to the rescue in all of these situations.
And don’t forget to eat them during your spring and fall cleanses to bind the toxins you are pulling out of the deeper tissues.
I hope you found this information beneficial as you strive to improve your health.
Thank you,