To peel yams or sweet potatoes easily, take them from the boiling water and immerse immediately in very cold water. The skins will almost fall off by themselves.

Sweet potatoes contain the same number of calories as white potatoes. However, they contain more vitamin C and three times the beta-caroteen as white potatoes.

Yams do not have the same nutritional value as sweet potatoes. They are about 10-20% less overall.

The best way to tell the difference between yams and sweet potatoes is to look at the flesh, which should be orange in a sweet potato, not red. Many sweet potatoes are labeled yams by supermarkets.

Yams are less sweet than sweet potatoes and the best sweet potato is called a "boniato" or "Cuban Sweet Potato" and has a very light yellow flesh.

Sweet potatoes have 10 calories per ounce less than yams.