There are many ‘functional’ foods in the world or more commonly what is termed a ‘superfood’, but in truth they’ve always existed and often right in front of our faces. The sweet potato is one of those functional foods and can tremendously impact your horse’s health on many levels and even soundness. How can sweet potato impact your horse? Let’s take a look.
Nutrition is paramount to the horse and impacts not just their overall health and longevity, but proper nutrition can speed recovery from illness or injury, and potentially prevent them in the first place. We are all about synthetic nutrition nowadays, utilizing ration balancers and vitamin-mineral supplements, but despite their usage, the horse is no healthier now than what they were in the beginning.
Two things are vitally important to me when providing care for a horse, or even my own self:
- Proper nutrition from true food sources (whole foods)
- Digestive health
It is ironic to me that both have been tossed to the side in modern medicine, believing that the processed diets we are feeding to the horse benefits them, when in fact it does not, and furthermore, those chosen ‘foods’ are creating more digestive microbiome imbalance and digestive issues. The gut or digestive system is vitally important for many reasons, but on the superficial level, it must be healthy to properly digest foods. If it is not, then we develop more issues in that horse and this is one reason why many horse owners have a misconception regarding the forage legume alfalfa. Another ‘superfood’ that has gained a bad reputation due to a lack of understanding.
The Power of Sweet Potato in the Horse
The sweet potato comes in two main forms, an orange one and a purple one, although the later of the two is not that common, at least in grocery stores. The species name for the sweet potato is Ipomoea batatas.
The sweet potato is a root vegetable and orange in color typically. These ‘root’ vegetables are seen in alternative medicine (Ayurveda and TCM) to rebuild and replenish the body, like the root of a plant feeding the body of the plant. Additionally, the color orange is similar to the color of yellow, and in TCM, the color yellow is designated to the spleen or digestive system, which means it is a food that nourishes and rebuilds digestion, which then rebuilds the body.
The sweet potato is packed full of nutrition, representing the groups of macronutrients (protein, fiber and some fat) and abundant micronutrients including vitamin A, vitamin C, copper, potassium, and many B-vitamins. In fact, the vitamin A level in sweet potatoes is one of the highest, being beta-carotene, and noted by the orange color to the vegetable.
Putting plain nutrition aside, which is a selling point by itself, the sweet potato is loaded with fiber, both insoluble and soluble, which tremendously aids digestive health as fiber is a potent prebiotic. Thus the digestive benefit to the vegetable.
Just looking at the nutritional aspect is a selling item and obvious supporter of health in the horse in many ways, not to mention their human counterparts, but the benefits go much further!
A superfood or functional food is often unique in that it contains other phytochemicals that benefit health, outside of the nutritional value. Again, these superfoods do not have to be exotic but are right there in front of your face.
Research and Sweet Potatoes for Health in the Horse
Research is abundant on the sweet potato and all you have to do is take a look and spend some time. These are powerful vegetables and should never be put in the same class as typical potatoes that most are familiar with. The nutrient value is huge and by itself impacts health, but it goes further. The purple sweet potato offers all the nutritional value of its orange counterpart, but the purple color is reflective of powerful antioxidants that are present, being anthocyanins. These are the same purple colored antioxidants found in blueberries, bilberries and other fruits that we highly recommend.
Research supported benefits of the sweet potato:
- Powerful anti-cancer properties (Asadi, 2017)
- Support cardiovascular health and blood pressure (Shindo, 2006)
- Anti-inflammatory properties (Sugata, 2015)
- Antioxidant properties (Kano, 2005)
- Protect the liver function (Han, 2006)
- Support healthy insulin and glucose levels (Zhao, 2013)
- Powerful Prebiotic Effect and Microbiome Balance (Sun, 2017)
- Anti-Ulcer Effect (Panda, 2012)
You can see that the list of health benefits to the horse and human are HUGE. Most of these benefits come from the potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential and the benefit upon the digestive microbiome.
The sweet potato is classified in TCM as being a Yin food, due to the nature of its nutrition and rebuilding the body. It is one powerful food and is a part of our SV EQ Nourish and Rebuild formula used to aid in tonifying the Yin component of the horse and aiding in rebuilding their body and overall health. In that formula, we use the purple sweet potato variety along with other Yin or rebuilding functional foods. It is a formula that most horses need, even the metabolic ones that are overweight, to aid in recovery.
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Author: Tom Schell, D.V.M, CVCH, CHN
Two web searches. My only point here is that there is so much conflicting information..
* Equines don’t usually like the taste of potatoes, but they might get tempted to eat it at some point. Potatoes are part of the nightshade family, making them toxic to horses. It contains a compound called atropine, which can affect your horse’s autonomic nervous system.
Raw potatoes are more dangerous than cooked potatoes, but potato poisoning is still possible even in the form of gnocchi, chips or other potato-based foods. The stems and the leaves of potato plants are also toxic for equines.
While other horses can eat potatoes without exhibiting any problems, other horses frequently experience gastrointestinal distress or atropine toxicity. Because of this high risk, it’s best to avoid feeding them this starchy vegetable at all times.
While regular and sweet potatoes are comparable in their calorie, protein, and carb content, white potatoes provide more potassium, whereas sweet potatoes are incredibly high in vitamin A.
* Both types of potatoes also contain other beneficial plant compounds.
Sweet potatoes, including red and purple varieties, are rich in antioxidants that help fight cell damage in your body caused by free radicals (3, 4).
Regular potatoes contain compounds called glycoalkaloids, which have been shown to have anticancer and other beneficial effects in test-tube studies (5Trusted Source
White potato Sweet potato
Calories 92 90
Protein 2 grams 2 grams
Fat 0.15 grams 0.15 grams
Carbs 21 grams 21 grams
Fiber 2.1 grams 3.3 grams
Vitamin A 0.1% of the Daily Value (DV) 107% of the DV
Vitamin B6 12% of the DV 17% of the DV
Vitamin C 14% of the DV 22% of the DV
Potassium 17% of the DV 10% of the DV
Calcium 1% of the DV 3% of the DV
Magnesium 6% of the DV 6% of the DV
Hi Bill, thanks for the input. We do not use the leaves or the stems, but the potato or root itself. We’ve used it for years in our formulas and well before that time, again using the potato and not the leaves or the stems. Very nutritious obviously and rebuilding in most circumstances. No toxicity at all. We do use the powder form in our formulas, not the raw vegetable. It is interesting, as you have stated, that there is much conflicting information. In the case of the potato, it is a matter of what part you are using, leaves, stems or the root or potato. Many are quick to judgement, seeing this, and condemn the entire plant. Not the case. There are many others, as well, which are noted to be ‘toxic’ to horses, mainly Tribulus terrestris, which is a fantastic rebuilding adaptogenic herb. We’ve used it in our research with really nice results, no toxicity at all, even at high doses. So, are these ‘toxicities’ true which you find online? I’m not sure. As a veterinarian, I’ve known of many, including some hard woods, wilting leaves, and red cherry for instance, which are all highly toxic, but at various stages of decay, so not always. Then again, many have known about acorns and the toxicity they pose and I’ve treated it in many horses in my career, HOWEVER, I think we need to define how that toxicity happens in the patient and what may predispose them. Case in point. On our property, we are loaded with oaks and thus acorns. The wooded area is the ‘clubhouse’ for the horses in the heat and in the fall they are in there munching down acorns of all stages. We call it the ‘candy store’ in the fall. However, no toxicity at all. Why? I can only wager a guess. Every one of our horses over the years has been on a Cur-OST formula in some shape or form, containing Curcumin or Turmeric. The toxicity of many plants, including acorns, impacts the body via oxidative stress damage. Many different toxins in the world, but they all tend to act in this manner on a cellular level. So, is it possible that by mitigating that inflammatory pathway that we reduced or eliminated toxicity of the acorns? God only knows.