The Spectacular Health Benefits of Yacon Root
If you’ve read any of our ingredients labels, you know we’re huge fans of yacon root. Every single Rowdy Bar flavor is packed full of this gut-friendly sweetener. In fact, it’s the hero of all our prebiotic Rowdy Bars!
There’s so much to love about this gut-friendly ingredient! Organic yacon root is naturally sweet, a picture-perfect example of prebiotics, and we mean it when we say it has tons of awesome health benefits.
Let’s talk about what this healthy ingredient actually is and all the ways you can benefit from it.
What Is The Yacon Root?
The yacon root is a perennial root vegetable that looks something like a sweet potato. Yacon root grows naturally in South America and is known for being both sweet and filling.
Yacon root contains good carbohydrates known as fructoogliosaccharides (FOS). FOS are insoluble fibers or prebiotics that our bodies can’t digest. That might sound like a bad thing, but it’s actually the reason they’re so good for us.
So, what do these prebiotic fibers do exactly? How do they work to heal our guts?
When FOS travel through our digestive system, they remain undigested and intact, despite the stomach’s best efforts. The yacon root prebiotic finally travels to the intestine, or the dining room for probiotics. Probiotics gobble up the prebiotics to rev up their energy and populate the gut with healthy bacteria.
Promoting a healthy gut is just one of the many benefits of yacon root. Take a look at the top 10 heroic deeds of this superfood!
Yacon Benefit #1 - All The Sweetness Without The Guilt
Yacon syrup is a super sweetener with powerful health benefits. When extracted and used in syrup form, yacon root is a low glycemic natural sweetener, meaning it doesn’t cause a spike in blood sugar. Yacon syrup partners up with other naturally sweet, fiber-full ingredients in our Rowdy bars like blueberry, cranberry, dark chocolate, and coconut for a sweet and sustainable snack.
This superfood is also a paleo-friendly natural sweetener. Yep, that’s right! This alternative natural sweetener can replace sugar in virtually anything—as honey, for baking, as a syrup, and, of course, in Rowdy Bars. Who knew that something so sweet and tasty could be a gut-healthy ingredient.
Yacon Benefit #2 - A Boost In Your Immunity
Remember how we said the yacon root helped repopulate the good-guy bacteria in your gut? Well, that means that it improves digestion and the absorption of nutrients as well.
A healthy microbiome boosts our immunity and enhances nutrient absorption. When the body (including the gut) is healthy, our immune system can focus on fighting off bad infections and bacteria that attack it. Yacon root helps improve your body’s resistance to infections and allergy stimulators as it cleanses your digestive system.
Yacon Benefit #3 - Lowers Blood Pressure
There are a few different heart-healthy benefits of yacon root, and the fact that the root vegetable has loads of potassium is an important one to mention. Potassium is what we call a vasodilator, meaning our blood vessels can relax. When blood vessels are relaxed, there’s less strain on the entire cardiovascular system.
When the cardiovascular system is chilling out strain-free the heart can pump blood throughout our body at a healthy rate. With a healthy flow of blood, it can help prevent heart attack and stroke.
Yacon Benefit #4 - Helps Regulate Blood Sugar
The benefits of yacon root don’t stop there! FOS in yacon root prevents our bodies from absorbing bad simple sugars that come from processed and high-carbohydrate foods. If you have Type II Diabetes, the yacon root could be your tasty line of defense. Yacon root for diabetes? Who knew!
Since this root vegetable is a low GI food, it lowers the amount of glucose that’s produced in the liver—the glucose that breaks down those simple sugars. Therefore, your blood sugar levels lower without compromising that sweet taste.
Yacon Benefit #5 - Improves Digestion
Incorporating prebiotics and probiotics into your diet each day promotes a healthy gut. And because the yacon root is a prebiotic food, it helps keep good bacteria flourishing.
When our body is full of good bacteria and our gut is happy and healthy, the efficiency of our digestive system increases, and we’re able to better absorb the nutrients from the foods we eat.
When we absorb more of the nutrients from the foods in our diet, our body is able to better prevent gastrointestinal stress like bloating and constipation, as well as more severe issues like ulcers.
Related Articles to Learn More About The Yacon Root And Prebiotic Foods
Prebiotics 101 | What Are The Best Prebiotic Foods You Should Eat?
The Super Health Benefits Of Yacon Syrup
Top 10 Benefits of Prebiotics and The Best Prebiotic Foods for Health
Yacon Benefit #6 - Is An Antifungal Treatment
Pesky fungal infections can certainly be a pain to get rid of. And the unnatural ointments that are used to treat these infections can be harsh on the skin.
Good news is, another benefit of yacon root is that it can be used as a fungal treatment. The leaves of yacon root have antifungal properties, which can help treat fungal infections like ringworm and athlete’s foot. If you’re ever suffering from a fungal infection, incorporate yacon root into your diet and see if your symptoms start to fade away.
Yacon Benefit #7 - Boosts Liver Health
The liver’s job is to filter blood from the digestive tract and detoxify chemicals from the body. Remember how we said the yacon root helps regulate glucose levels? Well, some studies have shown eating yacon root can boost overall liver health.
When we eat yacon root or yacon root syrup the liver doesn’t have to work as hard to regulate those glucose levels. It’s even been tested with fatty liver. When you eat yacon root in combination with milk thistle, it could even help prevent fatty liver.
Yacon Benefit #8 - Supports Weight Loss
When you think of a root vegetable the first thing that probably comes to mind is the starchy potato. Potatoes are loaded with starch and are high on the GI index—higher than table sugar actually.
But unlike its root vegetable friend, the yacon root doesn’t contain loads of starch and is a low GI food. Because it’s low GI, low in calories, and high in prebiotic fiber, the yacon root can aid in weight loss.
Using prebiotics for weight loss works because of the way it keeps you full for a longer period of time while still being low in calories. And like we said before, the yacon root also has digestion benefits, and actually has a slight laxative effect as well.
Yacon Benefit #9 - Keeps “Bad” Cholesterol Down
The yacon root may also be responsible for preventing the build up of low-density lipoprotein, or “bad” cholesterol in the arteries. FOS in yacon root lowers lipid levels in the body—the reason for high and “bad” cholesterol.
Prevention of this build up can also prevent heart attack, stroke, and heart disease.
Yacon Benefit #10 - Could Prevent Cancer
Yacon root may have anti-cancer properties too. Studies have shown that the health of the gut’s microbiota, or the good and bad bacteria, might play a role in certain types of cancer. Since the yacon root works to heal the gut when introduced into the diet along with probiotics, this superfood can play a role in preventing cancer.
Yacon root might can also prevent cancer cells from mutating or growing. And it may prevent specific cancers like colon cancer, skin cancer, and blood cancer.
Yacon Root And Other Foods Containing Prebiotics
What a bunch of yacon root goodness! Now that we know yacon root, and prebiotic foods in general, have so many benefits, let’s talk about some different ways we can incorporate yacon root and prebiotics into our daily diet.
Dark Chocolate. The good bacteria in our gut loves to munch on dark chocolate because of the sweet treat’s prebiotic properties. Yum! Enjoy some dark chocolate as your next healthy snack.
Chicory Root. The chicory root has loads of prebiotic fiber too. Chop it up and cook in some of your favorite vegetable dishes for dinner.
Rowdy Bars. Our four Rowdy Bars flavors are just the way you’ll love to munch on some yacon syrup. The combination of probiotics with prebiotics and cranberry in our sweet-tasting Sunflower Butter N’ Berries bar is one of the best. And do blueberries have fiber too? Yep, they sure do! And our Blueberry Almond Tart bars are loaded with them.
Onions. Onions, shallots, and spring onions are all a great source of prebiotic fiber as well as being full of gut-healthy vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.