I love sweet potatoes. When I started the Blood Type Diet, I didn't mind giving up Irish potatoes at all, but I was relieved to read that sweet potatoes are beneficial. I probably eat them 2-3 times a week. I put them in the oven on a cookie sheet and bake them at the same time I'm cooking beef or chicken.

At dinner tonight I took a mouthful of sweet potato and it felt like a mouthful of steel wool. I spit out that first mouthful, and inspected what was left of the potato. Hard, stringy fibers were under the skin all the way around. I was able to salvage about 1/3 of the potato right from the middle.

I thought - what if that was the first sweet potato I had ever eaten? I would think sweet potatoes were terrible, and I'd never try another one. Fortunately I only get a bad sweet potato once every 4-5 years.

Something similar happened a couple of months ago with parsnips. I was slicing parsnips to steam them. I noticed that one had a different color running through the center. It looked sort of like a target. I didn't think anything more about it until I bit into one of those parsnips. It was as if there was a dowel rod through the center. It was hard as a rock. I have never had a parsnip like that before or since, but what if that one had been my first parsnip?

If you are trying unfamiliar beneficial veggies, and at first you don't like them - give them a second chance. It may be that you just happened upon a dud. It may be that you need a bit more experience picking out vegetables. (I'm more likely to get a stringy sweet potato with a long thin one than with a short round one. I'm more likely to get an apple with a rotten core if it doesn't have a stem)

It may also be that you need a little time to develop a taste for a new vegetable. Turnips and seaweed were that way with me. My first impression was very negative, but I'm glad I gave them a second (and a third) chance.