Chapter 3: Sweet Potatoes: A Great Education by Accident

My feelings toward the education I received early in life are very much like my feelings toward sweet potatoes. When I was growing up in 1960s China, the country was having a very difficult time feeding its people. For most families in my village, there was never enough food to last the whole year, and the most abundant food was sweet potatoes. I remember eating them day after day throughout the year until they ran out. Despite the creativity and ingenuity my parents put into preparing them, sweet potatoes were still sweet potatoes. Though I tired of them quickly, I was grateful for their existence. When I entered college, I found that the student cafeteria offered far more appealing choices. I felt ashamed of the poor diet of my youth and avoided sweet potatoes as much as possible. But later, I discovered that sweet potatoes are actually very nutritious—rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, beta carotene, vitamin C and vitamin B6. My excellent eyesight may have resulted from the many sweet potatoes I had: A blessing in disguise.