Hi Mike ~~ I know of (actually recommended to them) several people who have successfully won the battle with candida feeding their dogs foods, like The Honest Kitchen, with sweet potato in it.
If you look at Nutritiondata.com — sweet potato has a lower glycemic load at 17 then long grain white rice at 24. The glycemic load of oats is 57 and barley is 19. Also note that the “inflammation factor” of both rice and oats is “strongly inflammatory”, barley is “moderately inflammatory” while the sweet potato is “strongly anti-inflammatory”. Plus, sweet potato doesn’t bind with minerals and prevent their absorption like grians. None of the other pitfalls of grains either. I’ll take sweet potato over grains and white potato any day.. However, I agree with HDM that any binder that is used in excess is not species appropriate and can be detrimental.
I don’t know what type of tapioca is used in the dog foods that use it but…. The following research was done on mice so may not be relevant to dogs and humans but guessing it is. “High-hydroxypropylated tapioca starch improves insulin resistance in genetically diabetic KKAy mice.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19397723
Sweet potato http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2667/2
Rice http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5712/2
Oats http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5708/2
Barley http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5680/2
