All potatoes are related to the deadly nighshade family of plants. It is safer to cook them. One note, when you feed white sweet potatoes, which are native to Africa, you lose the best reason for feeding them: the high vitamin A content. I really don't see a reason to feed white sweet potatoes; might as well just give plain potatoes.
There is a Unicef program through the UN and the World Food Bank to give the orange sweet potatoes to the women in villiages in Africa to eradicate vitamin A deficiency in Africa. The women, who control the things in the gardens, have embraced the new potatoe and they are finding many less A deficiency problems in the populations just in a short two year time period. When you take a minute to realize how much vitamin A influences eye health, you can see how wonderful a change this is.