My supermarket has them like on top of each other, and I don't even know which one I bought. I think it was Yams, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, for the same amount of each, there is quite a difference in nutritional value carbs wise, so does anyone know how to tell if what I have is indeed Yams or if it's sweet potatoes?

Wishful thinking perhaps, but I thought maybe there's a way to tell.

Alton brown had an episode on sweet potatos (good eats), he said that we really don't HAVE "yams" here... just different types of sweet potatos (IIRC)

efk is correct. However, there are different kinds of sweet potatoes available. It sounds like you can determine the difference based on the flesh color and skin texture. This article elaborates:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-23-a.html

Yam has skin that is abit hairy and its meat is normally a bit purplish in colour, with small dots.

Sweet potato's meat colour is normally orange in colour but some sweet potato is like yellowish in colour(normally orange colour is sweeter).

Maybe they were just using the terms interchangeably in the supermarket. I thought that real yams were supposed to be huge? When I read "Things Fall Apart" it was always talking about yams, and it made me want sweet potatoes all the time. :)

tan_pao_wei is right, and yam's usually alot bigger than sweet potato. You can find it in Chinatown.

Ahh, so then the sign at the supermarket that said they were Yams LIES!

Sucks too, yams = less calories for same amount. Oh well.

Ahh, so then the sign at the supermarket that said they were Yams LIES!

Sucks too, yams = less calories for same amount. Oh well.

they just don't know what a yam really is :)

Maybe they were just using the terms interchangeably in the supermarket. I thought that real yams were supposed to be huge? When I read "Things Fall Apart" it was always talking about yams, and it made me want sweet potatoes all the time. :)

Man i thought i was the only person in the world who has read that book! I think i cant lose weight because my chi doesnt want to!!

Maybe they were just using the terms interchangeably in the supermarket. I thought that real yams were supposed to be huge? When I read "Things Fall Apart" it was always talking about yams, and it made me want sweet potatoes all the time. :)

Wow, I read that book too! I don't remember much about it, but I still have it sitting on the book shelf.

It's funny this thread should surface now. My wife cooked both sweet potatos and yams on Saturday. The sweet potatos were smaller with yellow flesh, while the Yams were larger with orange flesh. Both tasted pretty much the same, so much so that I couldn't really tell you what the difference in taste was (ie, sweeter, saltier etc).

Wow, I read that book too! I don't remember much about it, but I still have it sitting on the book shelf.

It's funny this thread should surface now. My wife cooked both sweet potatos and yams on Saturday. The sweet potatos were smaller with yellow flesh, while the Yams were larger with orange flesh. Both tasted pretty much the same, so much so that I couldn't really tell you what the difference in taste was (ie, sweeter, saltier etc).

the yams don't have orange flesh, it's kinda purple with dark purplish hair (fiber). They are also bigger. Sweet potate has orange flesh.

They taste differently.