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Lose Weight, Boost Your Gut Health, and Ward Off Heart Disease With This Keto-Friendly Veggie

Looking for new delicious ways to pack more nutrients into your diet? Then you should definitely add jicama to your next grocery cart. The root vegetable is packed with perks that can help you shed a few pounds, balance your gut health, and keep your heart healthy. 

Let’s start with a quick breakdown of the nutrition you can find in one cup of jicama: high water content, 15 mg of both magnesium and calcium, 26.3 mg of vitamin C (roughly half the recommended daily amount), plus a boost of anti-inflammatory and disease-fighting antioxidants. All of that clocks in at just 49 calories and about 5 net carbs thanks to its high fiber levels, too. Yep, that means unlike many other root veggies, jicama is keto-friendly! It’s also a source of nitrates, which have been shown to amp up your body’s natural ability to burn fat faster. 

But this yummy veg isn’t just great for your waistline. The fiber comes in the form of prebiotic inulin, which means it works with probiotics to keep your microbiome in good balance. The fiber in jicama can also make sure your blood sugar levels stay in check because it slows the digestion process to prevent sudden spikes.  

Similarly, studies show that fiber in foods like jicama works in our intestines to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels by warding off excess production of it in our livers. Worried about blood pressure? The 195 mg of potassium found in a cup of jicama can keep those numbers down, which in turn reduces your risk of heart disease and stroke. 

Now you might be wondering what the best way to eat jicama is so you can unlock all those nutritional perks. The good news is that it’s a super versatile ingredient. You can enjoy the slightly sweet, nutty flavor raw sliced up as a snack on its own or with a dip, or add it as a crunchy texture to salads. You can also roast jicama as a keto-friendly potato substitute — they make for great fries! 

No matter how you prepare it, jicama will make your taste buds happy and keep your body healthy.

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