raw yams not good?

[joyce09]

I read in a health book by a Japanese medical doctor saying that yams are not good when eaten raw because raw yams contain enzyme inhibitors and are hard on the digestive system. He encourages eating cooked yams though. What do you think of his assertion?

[sport]

I can not think why anyone would think that we are meant to eat yams either raw or cooked. They do not seem like ideal food for humans.

[cornvalley]

I can not think why anyone would think that we are meant to eat yams either raw or cooked.

Millions of humans have thrived on a diet of mainly sweet potatoes over ten of thousands of years at least. They might be inclined to disagree. They would have eaten them cooked as cooking starch-containing items results in the hydration of starch molecules and the swelling of starch granules, increasing the rate and enhancing the enzymatic breakdown of starch.