While sweet potatoes tend to be sweet, they are technically not a potato at all. The sweet potato is a storage root, not a tuber like a true potato. Unlike a regular white potato, sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A. In fact, people in Africa use sweet potatoes to cure widespread vitamin A deficiencies, according to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. In addition to a significant amount of vitamin A, sweet potato contains a significant amount of other vitamins, minerals and nutrients.
Calories, Fat and Cholesterol
An average medium sweet potato contains approximately 103 calories when baked in its skin without salt. It has only 0.17 g of fat and 0.039 g of saturated fat, both of which are less than 1 percent of the daily value, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. Baked sweet potatoes have no cholesterol.
Protein and Carbohydrates
A medium-sized baked sweet potato provides approximately 2.3 g of protein, which is approximately 5 percent of the daily value. The total amount of carbohydrates is 23.6 g, which includes 2.8 g of dietary fiber. This is 8 percent and 15 percent of the daily value of these nutrients, respectively. A medium baked sweet potato has 7.4 g of sugar. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not established a daily value for sugar. Since getting too much sugar can increase your risk of obesity and further health problems, it is best to limit your overall daily sugar consumption as much as possible.
Vitamins
Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A, with a medium baked sweet potato contains a whopping 438 percent of the daily value. It also contains 37 percent of the daily value of vitamin C, 16 percent of the daily value of vitamin B-6 and 10 percent of the daily value of pantothenic acid. It also contains between 2 and 8 percent of the daily value of vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folate. There is no vitamin B-12.
Minerals
Baked sweet potatoes are also a good source of many minerals. A medium sweet potato baked in its skin without salt contains about 28 percent of the daily value of manganese and 15 percent of the daily value of potassium. It also has between 2 and 9 percent of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, zinc and copper. Baked sweet potatoes contain less than 1 percent of the daily value of selenium.
Considerations
A medium-sized baked sweet potato is about 114 g, according to the USDA, which is the base weight for the listed nutritional amounts. If your baked sweet potato is significantly smaller or larger than 114 g, the nutrition facts will vary. Adding toppings or additional ingredients to your sweet potato during or after the baking process also might alter the nutrition facts.
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