Vegetables · Root Vegetables

Taro Root: Benefits, Nutrition, How to Cook It & Side Effects

What taro root is, what a cooked cup delivers, what the research shows for your gut, blood sugar and blood pressure, why poi was a staple of the Pacific islands, and how to cook taro so it's safe and delicious.

By Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS·22-min read

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Evidence-based37 sources citedUpdated October 6, 2026

Published Oct 2, 2026Last updated Oct 8, 2026Editorial policyMedical review policyFact-checking policy

The Dr. Axe Score™

5.3/10

Overall Dr. Axe Score · Taro Root

Taro earns its score as a whole-food starch that brings fiber, potassium, copper, manganese and vitamins B6 and E along with its carbohydrate, a traditional fermented form in poi, and a small but encouraging set of human studies on taro and poi themselves.

Scientific Evidence

4.4/10

Small human studies of taro and poi: three glycemic index tests, a four-week poi study in 18 adults, a 30-day study in 41 adults and a 21-day traditional diet program.

Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory

5.0/10

Measurable phenolics and antioxidant capacity in lab tests, about 3.9 mg of vitamin E per cup, and anthocyanins in eddoe-type corms; no human inflammation studies yet.

Clinical Effectiveness

6.6/10

Our judgment: a filling, fiber-rich starch with a traditional fermented form and a central place in a traditional diet program; it must be cooked, and portion matters for blood sugar.

Nutrient Density

5.2/10

Per 187-calorie cup, about a quarter of the daily value for copper, manganese, vitamin B6, vitamin E and fiber; little protein, vitamin A or folate.

Why this score?

Why Taro Root scores 5.3 / 10

How the score works: Scientific Evidence rates the amount and quality of human, animal and lab research on taro itself; Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory and Nutrient Density reflect measured composition; Clinical Effectiveness is the team's judgment of real-world usefulness, informed by the cited human studies, traditional use and Dr. Axe's published teaching on gut health and blood sugar. These are editorial ratings, not validated clinical measurements; the scoring method has the details.
Interaction check: Low; taro is a potassium-rich food, and the details are in the side effects section. Interactions never change the score.
Weighting: Evidence 30% · Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory 25% · Clinical Effectiveness 25% · Nutrient Density 20% (4.4×0.30 + 5.0×0.25 + 6.6×0.25 + 5.2×0.20 = 5.26, shown as 5.3).

Larger and longer human trials of taro as a food would lift it further.

A transparent, weighted index built for foods. See how it’s calculated →

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Taro root at a glance

Taro root is the starchy, mildly sweet corm of the taro plant, a whole-food carbohydrate that people across the tropics have cooked and eaten for generations. One cooked cup (132 grams) delivers 6.7 grams of fiber, 639 milligrams of potassium and about a quarter of the daily value for copper, manganese and vitamins B6 and E, for 187 calories.1 2

Gut: its fiber, and the resistant starch that can form as cooked taro cools or ferments, feed the bacteria that make butyrate3 4
Tradition: poi, cooked taro mashed with water and left to ferment, was a major staple of the Pacific islands5
Diet study: on a traditional Hawaiian diet built on taro and poi, 20 adults lost about 17 pounds and lowered cholesterol and blood pressure in 21 days6
Blood sugar: in 10 healthy adults, steamed taro tested as a medium-glycemic food and raised blood sugar less than white bread; eat it after your protein and vegetables
Safety: eat it only cooked, soft all the way through; the side effects section explains why

Building a gut-friendly plate? The free Leaky Gut Protocol shows where gentle, cooked foods fit.

Peel a taro root and you'll find creamy white flesh, sometimes flecked with lilac, under a shaggy brown skin. Boil it and it turns soft, mildly sweet and a little nutty, somewhere between a potato and a chestnut. Taro ranks as the fifth most important root crop in the world,7 and in Hawaii, where it's called kalo, it became poi, a major staple of the Pacific islands.5

What makes taro worth a place on your plate is everything that comes with its starch. A cooked cup carries 6.7 grams of fiber and 639 milligrams of potassium,1 and as cooked taro cools or ferments, part of its starch can re-form as resistant starch, the kind your gut bacteria turn into butyrate.4 3 It's also a food you always eat cooked, which fits a principle from my Healing Leaky Gut Protocol.8

A healing gut prefers warm, cooked, soft foods over raw, cold, or fibrous ones.Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNSWritten in The Healing Leaky Gut Protocol (2025), p. 15

Get the free Leaky Gut Protocol

Taro's fiber feeds the bacteria that fuel your gut lining. This free 30-day protocol shows where gentle, gut-friendly foods fit, with:

The 6R roadmap: Remove, Replace, Reinoculate, Repair, Rebalance and Reframe
The top 10 gut-healing foods, plus a 7-day meal plan
A symptom self-assessment and the testing to consider

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Did you know?

In traditional Chinese medicine, the taro corm was used as a tonic and for some digestive complaints.9
Taro's starch comes in unusually small granules, one reason cooked taro is described as highly digestible.7
The leaves are food too, eaten cooked; they're low in calories and rich in fiber, minerals and protein.7

What is taro root?

Quick answer

Taro root is the starchy underground corm of Colocasia esculenta, a tropical plant grown for food and traditional medicine across Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands.10 It's always eaten cooked: boiled, steamed, roasted, mashed or fermented into poi. Its names change by region, from kalo in Hawaii to dasheen and eddoe in the Caribbean.4 11

The corm has a brown, ringed, hairy skin and white, cream or lilac-flecked flesh. It's mostly starch, packed in unusually small granules, along with mucilaginous gums that make cut taro feel slippery.7 In the Caribbean, the two main types are dasheen and eddoes, botanical varieties of the same species.11

Taro vs. ube

Taro and ube are different plants. Ube is a purple yam, and its deep color is natural, while taro flesh runs from white to pale lilac. A vivid purple dessert or drink labeled "taro" may owe its color to ube or to added coloring, so check the ingredient list.

A short history of taro and poi

Poi has drawn researchers' interest for almost a century. As early as 1933, scientists recognized that its souring came from acid-producing bacteria,12 and a 2004 review of poi's medicinal uses gathered early reports that it showed promise as a food for infants with allergies or failure to thrive, and called for more research.5 Over about nine years, the Waianae Diet Program brought groups of Native Hawaiian adults back to a traditional diet of taro, poi, sweet potato, yams, breadfruit, greens including taro leaves, fruit, seaweed, fish and chicken, eaten as much as they liked for 21 days at a time.13 Its results are in the benefits below.

Taro root nutrition facts

Quick answer

One cup of cooked taro (132 grams) has 187 calories, 6.7 grams of fiber and 639 milligrams of potassium, plus 29% of the daily value for copper and 26% each for manganese, vitamin B6 and vitamin E, with almost no fat and 20 milligrams of sodium.1 2

Calculated from USDA FoodData Central FDC ID 168486 (taro, cooked, without salt) at the record's 1-cup weight of 132 grams; % Daily Value uses FDA reference values. USDA estimates the vitamin E figure from a similar food, so treat it as approximate.1 2

Nutrient	1 cup cooked (132 g)	% DV (1 cup)	Per 100 g
Calories	187	n/a	142
Carbohydrate	45.7 g	17%	34.6 g
Fiber	6.7 g	24%	5.1 g
Total sugars	0.6 g	n/a	0.49 g
Protein	0.7 g	1%	0.52 g
Fat	0.1 g	0%	0.11 g
Copper	0.27 mg	29%	0.201 mg
Manganese	0.59 mg	26%	0.449 mg
Vitamin B6	0.44 mg	26%	0.331 mg
Vitamin E	3.9 mg	26%	2.93 mg
Potassium	639 mg	14%	484 mg
Thiamin	0.14 mg	12%	0.107 mg
Magnesium	40 mg	9%	30 mg
Phosphorus	100 mg	8%	76 mg
Vitamin C	6.6 mg	7%	5.0 mg
Folate	25 mcg DFE	6%	19 mcg DFE
Sodium	20 mg	1%	15 mg

One cup of cooked taro covers about a quarter of the daily value for five nutrients, plus 14% for potassium

Source: USDA FoodData Central · FDC 168486, taro, cooked, without salt [1]Percent Daily Values calculated from the USDA record against FDA Daily Values.

A cup of taro gives you a meaningful share of copper, manganese, vitamin B6, vitamin E and fiber, but less than a gram of protein, so build the plate around fish, chicken, eggs or beans and let taro be the starch.1

What is taro root good for?

Quick answer

Taro root is best as a fiber-rich, whole-food starch that feeds your gut bacteria and adds potassium for healthy blood pressure.1 3 14 On a traditional Hawaiian diet built on taro and poi, 20 adults lost weight and lowered cholesterol and blood pressure in three weeks, and poi, its fermented form, was well tolerated daily for four weeks.6 12

Where the research stands

Taro has a small set of human studies on the food itself: three glycemic index tests in 8 to 10 healthy adults each, a four-week poi study in which 18 adults each tried both poi and their usual diet, a 30-day study of blood markers in 41 adults, and a 21-day traditional Hawaiian diet program in 20 adults.15 11 16 12 17 6 The fiber, potassium and butyrate benefits come from research on those nutrients across all foods,18 14 3 and most other taro research is lab and animal work, where reviewers describe promising activity and call for clinical trials.10

Taro root benefits, graded by evidence strength (Updated October 2026). Evidence labels are editorial judgments.
Benefit	Evidence	What was studied	What the research shows	Good to know
Fiber for gut and heart	Moderate	Fiber intake in 185 long-term studies and 58 trials	Highest fiber intake linked to 15% to 30% lower death rates and lower rates of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer18	6.7 g fiber per cooked cup1
Healthy blood pressure	Moderate	Potassium intake in 1,606 people	Systolic pressure 3.49 points lower in adults14	639 mg potassium per cooked cup1
Weight, cholesterol and blood pressure	Emerging	Traditional Hawaiian diet built on taro and poi, 21 days	About 17 pounds lost; cholesterol and blood pressure down6	Taro and poi were staples, eaten to fullness6
A gentle fermented food	Emerging	Fresh poi, about 1½ cups a day for 4 weeks	No side effects reported12	Fermenting poi raised its resistant starch4
Blood sugar response	Mixed	Steamed or boiled taro in healthy adults	GI 69, lower than white bread; 61 and 77 in two Caribbean types15 11	Eat protein and vegetables first19
Cancer-related markers	Preclinical	Boiled taro daily for 30 days; poi extract on cancer cells	Shifts in blood proteins tied to tumor growth; slowed cancer cells in a dish17 20	Markers, not cancer outcomes

How does taro root work in your body?

Taro works mainly through your gut. As I explained on my show, fiber and resistant starch are things you can't digest on your own, so the bacteria in your colon ferment them and release short-chain fatty acids.21 Here's how a cooked cup of taro feeds that chain.

1Cooking, cooling and fermenting shape the starch

Cooked taro starch is highly digestible,22 but as cooked starch cools, part of it can line up again into resistant starch. In lab work on isolated taro starch, two rounds of heating, pressure-cooking, enzyme treatment and cooling raised its resistant fraction 16-fold,23 and fermenting poi raised its resistant starch in lab tests.4

2Fiber and resistant starch reach your colon

Resistant starch is starch that escapes digestion in the small intestine and travels on to the large bowel, along with fiber.3 A cooked cup of taro carries 6.7 grams of fiber.1

3Your bacteria ferment them

Colon bacteria ferment resistant starch and fiber into short-chain fatty acids, mainly acetate, propionate and butyrate.3

4Butyrate fuels your colon lining

Butyrate is a preferred fuel for the cells lining your colon. In isolated human colon cells, it accounted for 73% to 75% of their oxygen use, a measure of how they make energy, when it was the only fuel available.24

That last step is why butyrate matters so much. As I put it on my show, "It powers and repairs gut barrier cells. It calms inflammation throughout your entire body."21 Taro supplies both fiber and resistant starch. Eat it as a whole cooked food, alongside fermented foods and plenty of vegetables, and you give your gut bacteria the raw material for the whole chain.

Taro root benefits, ranked by evidence

Ranked by the strength of the research, taro's best-supported benefits are fiber for your gut and heart, potassium for healthy blood pressure, a central place in a traditional diet that lowered weight, cholesterol and blood pressure, and poi as a gentle fermented food. Each card names the kind of study behind it.

Fiber for your gut and heart

Moderate evidenceHuman studyUSDA composition · reviews of 185 cohort studies and 58 trials

One cooked cup of taro delivers 6.7 grams of fiber, 24% of the daily value.1 2 As I've said on my show, "The average person is getting around 14 to 15 grams of fiber a day. You want to be getting at least 30 for most people."21 Across 185 studies that followed people over time, those who ate the most fiber had 15% to 30% lower rates of death from all causes and from cardiovascular disease, and of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer, than those who ate the least, and in 58 clinical trials more fiber lowered body weight, systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol.18 A cup of taro covers almost a quarter of a day's target. See high-fiber foods for more.

Study takeaway: a cup of cooked taro adds 6.7 grams of fiber, and the highest fiber intakes are linked to 15% to 30% lower rates of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer.

Potassium for healthy blood pressure

Moderate evidenceHuman studyMeta-analysis · 22 trials, 1,606 people · 11 cohorts

A cooked cup of taro carries 639 milligrams of potassium, 14% of the daily value.1 2 "Your arteries relax on magnesium and potassium, and modern food is stripped of both while flooding you with sodium," as I wrote in my High Blood Pressure Protocol, where I suggest aiming for 4,000 to 4,700 milligrams of potassium a day from food.25 In a review of 22 randomized trials with 1,606 people, eating more potassium lowered systolic blood pressure by 3.49 points and diastolic by 1.96 in adults, an effect that showed up in people with high blood pressure, and across 11 studies that followed people over time, higher potassium intake was linked to a 24% lower risk of stroke.14 Taro is an easy, whole-food way to get it. The high blood pressure diet shows how to build the rest of the plate.

Study takeaway: more potassium lowered systolic blood pressure by 3.49 points across 22 trials, and a cup of taro brings 639 milligrams.

A traditional diet built on taro

Emerging evidenceHuman studySingle-group program · 20 Native Hawaiian adults · 21 days

In the Waianae Diet Program, 20 Native Hawaiian adults with several heart-disease risk factors ate a traditional Hawaiian diet, with taro and poi among its staples, as much as they wanted for 21 days.6 13 Without being told to eat less, they went from about 2,594 to 1,569 calories a day, lost an average of 7.8 kilograms (about 17 pounds), saw total cholesterol fall from 222.7 to 191.4 mg/dL (5.76 to 4.95 mmol/L) and lowered blood pressure by 11.5 points systolic and 8.9 diastolic.6 The program had no comparison group and changed the whole diet, so the results belong to the traditional pattern with taro at its center. A 2004 review of these programs found that most participants lost weight and improved their health in the short term, and that staying with the diet was the hard part, mostly because fresh, affordable produce and support were hard to come by.26 When researchers later reached 82 past participants, an average of about 34 months on, they weighed 15.1 pounds less on average than when they started.13

Study takeaway: on a traditional Hawaiian diet built on taro and poi, 20 adults lost about 17 pounds and lowered cholesterol and blood pressure in 21 days.

On a traditional Hawaiian diet with taro and poi as staples, cholesterol fell in 21 days

Source: Shintani et al. · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1991 [6]Weight and blood pressure fell too. Converted from 5.76 and 4.95 mmol/L.

Poi, a gentle fermented food

Emerging evidenceHuman studyEach person tried both · 18 adults · 4 weeks

Poi was well tolerated: adults ate about 1½ cups a day for four weeks with no side effects reported, and fermenting it for a day or two raised its resistant starch.12 4 The poi section below has the details.

Study takeaway: adults ate about 1½ cups of poi a day for four weeks with no side effects reported.

A moderate blood sugar response

Mixed evidenceHuman study3 glycemic index studies · 8 to 10 healthy adults each

In 10 healthy young adults, steamed taro tested as a medium-glycemic food (GI 69) and raised blood sugar and insulin less than white bread with the same amount of carbohydrate, while one Caribbean variety, dasheen, tested high.15 11 Eaten after protein and vegetables, it fits a blood-sugar-conscious plate; the blood sugar section below has the numbers.19

Study takeaway: steamed taro tested as a medium-glycemic food and raised blood sugar less than white bread in 10 healthy adults.

Early research on cancer-related markers

Preclinical evidenceHuman studyBefore-and-after · 41 adults · 30 days; lab cell studies

When 41 healthy young adults in China ate 200 grams of boiled taro every day for a month, blood levels of three proteins tied to tumor growth (CYR61, ANXA1 and vimentin) fell, among 22 of 92 cancer-related proteins that shifted; the study had no comparison group and measured markers rather than cancer itself.17 In the lab, a soluble extract of poi slowed the growth of rat colon cancer cells and pushed them to self-destruct, while it stimulated normal immune cells,20 and a review of taro's compounds describes anticancer and immune activity in cell and animal studies.27

Study takeaway: a month of daily boiled taro lowered blood levels of three tumor-linked proteins in 41 healthy adults.

Antioxidant and immune activity in the lab

Preclinical evidenceIn vitro (lab)Lab analyses and cell studies

In lab tests, taro corm measured 205 milligrams of total phenolics per 100 grams (as catechin equivalents) and clear antioxidant capacity against two test radicals.22 Eddoe-type corms carry anthocyanins, pigments with antioxidant activity,7 and a purified polysaccharide from one taro variety switched on mouse immune cells in a dish.28

Study takeaway: taro corm carries measurable phenolic antioxidants in lab tests.

What is poi, and is it good for you?

Quick answer

Poi is cooked taro mashed with water into a smooth paste and left to ferment, the traditional Hawaiian way to eat taro. It's a gentle fermented food: within 24 hours its pH drops from 6.3 to 4.5 as lactic acid bacteria sour it, and in a four-week study, adults ate about 1½ cups a day with no side effects reported.12

Fresh poi tastes mild; give it a few days and lactic acid bacteria turn it pleasantly sour, much as they do in yogurt and sauerkraut.12 An early investigator found that poi's bacteria were mostly Lactococcus lactis, with some lactobacilli.5 In a 2025 lab analysis of five commercial poi samples, a day or two of fermentation made lactic acid bacteria such as Leuconostoc, Lactococcus, Weissella and Lactobacillus dominant and raised resistant starch by 8% to 38% in four of the five, while minerals held steady and 18 amino acids, nine of them essential, were detected.4

In a University of Hawaii feeding study, 18 healthy adults each tried both: four weeks eating 130 grams of fresh poi (about half a cup) three times a day, and four weeks of their usual diet without it. No one reported side effects, and stool frequency and consistency stayed the same. Counts of the bacteria measured in stool didn't change significantly in four weeks, and the researchers suggested testing sour poi, which ferments longer, in a longer study.12

As I've said on my show, "Fiber helps you go deep and build more, but fermented foods help you go wider. They act synergistically together."21 Poi brings fermentation and resistant starch together in one traditional food. It's lower in fiber than the cooked corm, about 0.4 grams per 100 grams by USDA's measure,29 so serve it the traditional way, as a side with fish or chicken and a pile of cooked greens.

Ask Dr. Axe AI about taro

Answers are grounded in this library, with sources shown.

Does taro root raise blood sugar?

Quick answer

In 10 healthy young adults, steamed taro tested as a medium-glycemic food and raised blood sugar and insulin less than white bread with the same amount of carbohydrate.15 Keep the portion to ½ to 1 cup and eat your protein and vegetables first to keep the rise gentle.19

A cup of cooked taro carries 45.7 grams of carbohydrate, 6.7 of them fiber,1 and how much it moves your blood sugar depends on the variety, how it's cooked and what else is on the plate. The glycemic index measures how much a food raises blood sugar against a reference food, using portions with the same 50 grams of carbohydrate:

Taro tested	Who was tested	Result
Steamed taro, Taiwan	10 healthy adults, 20 to 30 years old	69, classed as medium; significantly lower than white bread15
Boiled eddoes, Trinidad	8 to 10 healthy adults	61, with glucose set at 100; classed as intermediate11
Boiled dasheen, Trinidad	8 to 10 healthy adults	77, with glucose set at 100; classed as high11
Taro corm, lab digestion test	No people; an estimate	63.1, medium22

Cooking method matters too. In a Jamaican glycemic index study of 14 staple foods, including dasheen, tested in 10 healthy adults, some roasted and baked foods raised blood sugar significantly more than the same foods boiled or fried, and the researchers concluded that boiling may help keep a diet's glycemic index lower.16 Boiling also pulls oxalate into the cooking water, as the side effects section explains.

The bigger lever is how you eat it. In my Insulin Resistance & Prediabetes protocol, I put the simplest tool this way: "Eating vegetables and protein first and carbohydrates last leads to a smaller blood-sugar rise than the same meal in reverse."19 The same protocol suggests lighter carbohydrates at dinner, saving starches for earlier in the day or after training.19 So put taro on your lunch plate beside fish or chicken and a pile of vegetables, and eat it last. On insulin or another blood-sugar medicine? Read the note in the side effects section first. The normal blood sugar guide has the ranges to aim for.

Three markers that show how your body handles starch

These markers show the broader picture of how your body handles carbohydrates, beyond any single serving of taro. HbA1c reflects a three-month average, and fasting insulin and the triglyceride-to-HDL ratio are snapshots from the same draw. Targets are Dr. Axe's functional ranges.

HbA1c: Your average blood sugar over about three months. Dr. Axe's target is under 5.4%.
Fasting insulin: How hard your body works to hold glucose steady. Dr. Axe's target is about 2 to 6 µIU/mL.
Triglyceride-to-HDL ratio: A window on metabolic health. Dr. Axe's target is under about 1.5.

See the cellular bloodwork panel

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How much taro root should you eat?

Quick answer

There's no set dose; ½ to 1 cup of cooked taro as the starch on your plate is a practical food amount. That's about 94 to 187 calories, 23 to 46 grams of carbohydrate and 3.4 to 6.7 grams of fiber.1

In the poi study, adults ate about 1½ cups of poi a day for four weeks,12 and in the Waianae program taro and poi were eaten to fullness.6 If you're watching your blood sugar, start at ½ cup and eat it after your protein and vegetables. With kidney disease or a potassium-raising medicine, read the potassium note in the side effects section first.

How to cook taro root

Cook taro the way you'd cook a potato, with one rule: cook it until it's soft all the way through. Cooked taro tastes mild, slightly sweet and nutty, with a creamy texture that holds together in stews and mashes smoothly.

Peel it with gloves on, or under running water. Fresh taro's slippery sap can make your hands itch.9
Cut it into even chunks so every piece cooks at the same rate.
Boil until a fork slides through the center with no resistance, then pour off the water, which carries away soluble oxalate.30
Finish it any way you like: mash it, roast it, stir it into soup or chill it for later.

Mash it with olive oil, garlic and sea salt as the starch beside fish or chicken.

Roast boiled cubes in a hot oven until they turn golden and crisp, then finish with lemon.

Simmer it into a stew or a coconut milk soup, where it thickens the broth.

Chill leftover boiled taro and toss it into a salad with herbs and olive oil.

Make fritters from grated cooked taro bound with egg, pan-fried in avocado oil.

Serve poi the traditional way, as a side with grilled fish and cooked greens.

Garlic mashed taro

Serves 4 · Prep 10 minutes · Cook about 25 minutes

2 pounds taro root, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
3 cloves garlic, peeled
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
Chopped parsley, to finish

Cover the taro and garlic with water in a pot and bring to a boil.
Boil until the taro is completely soft all the way through, then drain and discard the water.
Mash with the olive oil, salt and pepper, adding a splash of hot water for a smoother texture.
Finish with parsley and serve beside fish, chicken or eggs.

Roasted taro with lemon

Serves 4 · Prep 10 minutes · Cook about 40 minutes

2 pounds taro root, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons avocado oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Boil the cubes for about 10 minutes, then drain well and discard the water.
Toss with the oil and salt and spread in a single layer on a sheet pan.
Roast at 425°F for 25 to 30 minutes, turning once, until the edges crisp and the centers are soft all the way through.
Finish with the lemon juice and zest.

Taro forms, and how to buy and store it

Fresh taro root is the form behind the nutrition numbers on this page. Here's how the other forms compare:

Form	What it is	Good to know
Fresh taro root	The whole corm	Boil, steam, roast or mash it; the USDA values on this page are for the cooked corm1
Poi	Cooked taro mashed with water and fermented	Mild when fresh, tangy when sour; lower in fiber than the corm29
Taro flour and starch	Flour is dried, milled taro; starch is extracted from it	Naturally gluten-free, and used in baby foods and gluten-free products31
Taro chips	Thin slices, fried	A snack; frying adds oil the corm doesn't have
Taro milk tea and boba	Sweetened drinks	Often made with sweetened taro-flavored powder or syrup; see bubble tea

For gluten-free baking, taro flour joins the other gluten-free flours you can rotate through.

Buying. Choose corms that feel firm and heavy for their size, with dry skin and no soft spots, mold or sour smell.

Storing. Keep whole corms in a cool, dry, dark spot with some airflow, much as you'd store winter squash, and use them within a week or two. Once peeled and cut, cover the pieces with water, refrigerate them and cook within a day.

Taro root side effects & who should be careful

Quick answer

Cooked taro is a safe everyday food, and the one firm rule is never to eat it raw. Raw or undercooked taro causes acridity, an itching, burning irritation of the mouth and throat, and thorough cooking prevents it.32 People prone to kidney stones, people with kidney disease or on potassium-raising or blood-sugar medicines, and anyone allergic to taro should take the extra steps below.

Interaction check: Low for food amounts. No drug interactions specific to taro have been documented; the things to watch are its potassium and, if you take insulin or another blood-sugar medicine, its carbohydrate, both covered below.

Why can't you eat taro raw?

Taro stores bundles of needle-shaped calcium oxalate crystals, called raphides, inside specialized cells. Eaten raw or undercooked, they cause acridity: itching and pain in the mouth and throat. Researchers found allergen-like proteins riding on those crystals, and because thorough cooking or protein-digesting enzymes can switch the irritation off, they think a compound carried on the crystals, rather than the crystals alone, drives it.32 Fresh taro's slippery mucilage also contains a protein that stimulated nerve cells in a lab test, which helps explain why peeling raw taro can make your hands itch.9 Oxalates occur in every part of the plant, leaves included.33

Cultures that made taro a staple worked this out long before anyone identified those proteins, and their methods still work: peeling, grating, soaking, fermenting and long cooking all lower taro's oxalate.33 So boil, steam or roast taro until it's soft all the way through, cook the leaves thoroughly too, and never taste a piece that's still firm to check it.

Can taro cause kidney stones?

In Heal Your Cells, Dr. Will Cole and I wrote, "While oxalates aren't harmful in small amounts, overconsuming high-oxalate foods, especially if you have poor gut health, can lead to mineral depletion and even contribute to kidney stone formation in susceptible individuals."34 Taro carries oxalate, and about 75% of kidney stones are made mainly of calcium oxalate.30 Cooking takes care of much of it. In a lab study of taro corms, boiling for 80 minutes cut soluble oxalate by 83%, from 345 to 57.8 milligrams per 100 grams,33 and in a lab study of nine vegetables, nearly all the oxalate lost in boiling ended up in the cooking water.30

Boiling taro for 80 minutes cut its soluble oxalate by 83%

Source: Vela-Gutiérrez et al. · Journal of Food Science and Technology, 2022 [33]Boiling pulls soluble oxalate into the water, which is why the water gets poured off.

If you've had calcium oxalate kidney stones, boil taro and pour off the water.33 30 A 2019 review of dietary oxalate and stones adds the steps that limit stone growth: drink plenty of fluids and get enough calcium.35

Can you be allergic to taro?

Yes. In a nationwide survey of 9,982 Taiwanese children, 3.0% had a physician-diagnosed vegetable allergy, and taro and bamboo shoots were the most common vegetable triggers. Most reactions involved the skin and mouth, and most children needed only to avoid the food.36 If cooked taro brings on hives or swelling, stop eating it, and get care right away for wheezing, facial swelling or trouble breathing. See food allergy symptoms.

Potassium, blood sugar and medicines

A cooked cup of taro carries 639 milligrams of potassium.1 For most adults, more potassium from food is a plus: the review behind potassium's blood pressure benefit found no harm to kidney function, and its advice applies to people whose kidneys handle potassium normally.14 With kidney disease, or if you take an ACE inhibitor, an ARB or spironolactone, which can raise potassium levels, count taro toward your potassium for the day.37 See hyperkalemia.

If you take insulin or another blood-sugar medicine, check your meter the first few times you add taro; a change in carbohydrates can change the dose you need, and your doctor makes that adjustment.

Good to know before you eat taro

Eat taro only cooked, soft all the way through, and wear gloves to peel it raw
Prone to kidney stones? Boil it, pour off the water and drink plenty of fluids
With kidney disease or a potassium-raising medicine, count its potassium
Stop at any hives or swelling after eating it, and get care right away for wheezing, facial swelling or trouble breathing

The bottom line

Should you eat taro root?

Yes, cooked. Taro root is a whole-food starch that brings fiber, potassium, copper, manganese and vitamins B6 and E to your plate, along with starch your gut bacteria can turn into butyrate. People across the Pacific islands built their diet around it and turned it into poi, and I value that history because a food that fed so many generations is worth taking seriously. The human research on taro itself is encouraging, from a traditional diet that lowered weight, cholesterol and blood pressure in three weeks to a fermented poi that adults ate every day without side effects.

Boil or steam it until soft, pour off the water, and enjoy ½ to 1 cup beside fish, chicken or greens, eating the vegetables and protein first. Try poi when you find it. Your body was designed to heal, and a well-cooked traditional food like taro feeds the gut bacteria that help it do that work.

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Taro root: frequently asked questions

Is taro root good for you?

Yes. One cooked cup gives you 6.7 grams of fiber, 639 milligrams of potassium and about a quarter of the daily value for copper, manganese and vitamins B6 and E, for 187 calories.1 2

Can you eat taro raw?

No. Raw or undercooked taro causes acridity, an itching, burning irritation of the mouth and throat, so cook it until it's soft all the way through.32

What does taro root taste like?

Cooked taro tastes mild, slightly sweet and nutty, with a creamy texture somewhere between a potato and a chestnut. Poi, its fermented form, turns pleasantly sour as it ages.12

Is taro good for people with diabetes?

It can fit, in a ½- to 1-cup portion eaten after your protein and vegetables. Steamed taro tested as a medium-glycemic food and raised blood sugar less than white bread in 10 healthy adults.15 19

Can I use taro instead of potatoes?

Yes. Cook taro the way you'd cook a potato, until it's soft all the way through, then mash it, roast it or simmer it in stews, and count it as the starch on your plate.

Is taro root high in carbs?

Yes. A cooked cup has 45.7 grams of carbohydrate, including 6.7 grams of fiber and less than a gram of sugar, so treat it as the starch on your plate.1

Does taro have resistant starch?

Yes, and fermenting cooked taro into poi adds more: letting commercial poi ferment for a day or two raised its resistant starch by 8% to 38% in four of five samples.4 Cooling cooked starch also lets part of it re-form as resistant starch, which lab processing has shown in isolated taro starch.23

Is taro good for gut health?

Yes. A cooked cup carries 6.7 grams of fiber, and taro's fiber and resistant starch feed the colon bacteria that make butyrate, a main fuel for the cells lining your colon.1 3 24 Poi, the fermented form, was well tolerated at about 1½ cups a day for four weeks.12

What is poi?

Poi is cooked taro mashed with water into a smooth paste and left to ferment, the traditional Hawaiian way to eat taro. Lactic acid bacteria sour it, dropping its pH from 6.3 to 4.5 within the first 24 hours.12

Is taro the same as ube?

No. Ube is a purple yam with naturally deep purple flesh, and taro is a different plant whose flesh runs from white to pale lilac.

Is taro gluten-free?

Yes. Taro and taro flour are naturally gluten-free, and taro starch is used in gluten-free products and baby foods.31

Can taro cause kidney stones?

Not for most people. Oxalate matters mainly if you're prone to calcium oxalate stones,34 and boiling cuts it: in a lab study, boiling taro for 80 minutes lowered its soluble oxalate by 83%.33 If you are prone to stones, pour off the cooking water,30 drink plenty of fluids and get enough calcium.35

Can you eat taro leaves?

Yes, cooked. The leaves are low in calories and rich in fiber, minerals and protein, and like the corm they contain oxalate, so cook them thoroughly.7 33

Is taro milk tea healthy?

Not as an everyday drink. Taro milk tea is usually sugar-sweetened and often made with taro-flavored powder or syrup, so keep it an occasional treat and get taro's fiber and potassium from the cooked root. At home, blend cooked taro with warm coconut milk and a little raw honey.

How much taro should I eat?

About ½ to 1 cup of cooked taro as the starch on your plate is a practical food amount, with about 94 to 187 calories and 3.4 to 6.7 grams of fiber.1

Does taro help with weight loss?

It can help as a filling, fiber-rich whole food. On a traditional Hawaiian diet built on taro and poi, 20 adults eating to fullness took in about 1,000 fewer calories a day and lost an average of about 17 pounds in 21 days.6

Freshness & update log

October 6, 2026 — Matched Dr. Axe's quotes to his own words, with their sources.

October 2, 2026 — Rewritten to the current DrAxe.com standard, replacing the September 14, 2026 version. Added the human studies on taro and poi: three glycemic index studies, a four-week poi feeding study in 18 adults, a 30-day blood-marker study in 41 adults and the Waianae traditional Hawaiian diet program with its long-term follow-up. Added a lab study of oxalate in boiled taro, a pediatric allergy survey, a 2025 analysis of fermentation in commercial poi, a diagram of how fiber and resistant starch feed butyrate, and three charts. Rebuilt the nutrition facts from USDA FoodData Central FDC ID 168486 (taro, cooked, without salt) in place of the salted record. Rescored under the current food weighting (editorial score 5.3) in place of the retired method. Corrected the potassium review's blood pressure figure to its all-adult scope, attached the anthocyanin finding to the eddoe-type corms it was measured in, re-sourced taro allergy to a physician-reviewed pediatric survey, and removed a mucilage finding from a different plant genus, an unsupported hypoallergenic claim and the comparison table of other starches. Gathered all safety guidance in one section.

References

Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS

Doctor of Natural Medicine · Founder, DrAxe.com

Dr. Axe is a certified doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, and multiple New York Times bestselling author. He has spent 20+ years in clinical practice helping people heal at the root cause and founded one of the most-visited natural-health platforms in the world.

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