Every year around Thanksgiving, my family confronts the yam vs. sweet potato issue. Are they different, and is one better than the other? — Jeff

That is a great question and it often comes up when sweet potatoes are discussed. Sweet potatoes are called yams because of a historical name mix-up, primarily rooted in the transatlantic slave trade and how sweet potatoes were marketed after the 1930s.

First, some history.

Enslaved Africans in the Americas used the name "yam" for the sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas, native to the Americas) they encountered here, as they were a substitute for the starchy yams (Dioscorea rotundata, native to Africa) they were familiar with in Africa. That’s where the word “yam” being used for sweet potatoes originated.

Later, in the 1930s, sweet potato breeders

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