Sweet Potato vs Pumpkin

Pumpkin

I was really craving pumpkin pie but didn’t have any canned pumpkin in the house so decided to try out a sweet potato pie. I basically used the same recipe, but instead of pumpkin, I used peeled, steamed sweet potatoes that I pressed through a potato ricer before combining with the rest of the pie ingredients. And the end result tastes pretty much the same.

So I got curious about the nutritional differences between pumpkin and sweet potato, and looked up a nutrition facts chart for both on NutritionData.com.

I found out that if you are looking for calories, sweet potato has about five times the calories and carbohydrates. Most of that is in the sugar department, as sweet potato has just about ten times the amount as pumpkin. But it also has three times the fiber.

Sweet potato laps pumpkin in vitamin A; while both are great sources, sweet potato has about four times as much. There is also about triple the vitamin C in sweet potatoes as pumpkin. And sweet potato minerals such as calcium and iron have a slight edge over pumpkin.

Sweet Potato

In short, sweet potato is nutrient and calorie dense in relation to pumpkin. Pumpkin may be better for someone on a calorie-restricting diet, however both are very healthy sources of nutrients and make delicious filling for pie. So enjoy!