Introduction:
Sweet potatoes are more than just a popular staple food serving as a sweet appetizer, side dish or filling snack on their own. This starchy root vegetable has plenty to offer when it comes to achieving optimal health. Sweet potato is a common food source for many indigenous populations in Africa, Central and South Americas, the Caribbean and Hawaii.
It’s an excellent source of natural compounds, including beta-carotene and anthocyanins. The high concentration of these compounds in the root crop, paired with its stable colors, make sweet potato a healthful alternative to synthetic coloring agents in food. Let’s take a closer look at five ways that sweet potatoes benefit overall wellness.
Rich Nutrition Profile:
1 cup of sweet potatoes contains:
- Water — 103 grams (g)
- Energy — 114 kilocalories (kcal)
- Protein — 2.09 g
- Carbohydrate — 26.9 g
- Calcium — 39.9 milligrams (mg)
- Iron — 0.811 mg
- Potassium — 448 mg
- Phosphorus — 62.5 mg
- Sodium — 73.2 mg
The orange and purple varieties of sweet potatoes are rich in antioxidants such as beta-carotene, chlorogenic acid and vitamin C.
Enhanced Memory and Cognitive Health
A 2013 study found that a purple sweet potato extract rich in caffeoylquinic acids led to a neuroprotective effect on the brain of animal models, potentially helping improve spatial learning and memory.
Purple sweet potato color comes from a class of naturally occurring anthocyanins that have strong antioxidant and neuroprotective activity in animal subjects; it showed great promise in improving cognitive function. In further animal studies, purple sweet potatoes were shown to protect the brain by reducing inflammation.
Immune Support
Sweet potatoes with orange flesh are among the best natural sources of beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A in the body.
Vitamin A is critical to a healthy immune system. “It is not surprising that vitamin A deficiency is associated with impaired intestinal immune responses and increased mortality associated with gastrointestinal and respiratory infections.
Purple sweet potatoes are also of particular interest in immune support, with polysaccharides including water-soluble polysaccharide, dilute alkali-soluble polysaccharide and concentrated alkali-soluble polysaccharide (CASP) which have immune-enhancing effects.
Anticancer Potential
Anthocyanins, a group of antioxidants found in sweet potatoes, have been widely evaluated for their anticancer properties, particularly against colorectal, colon, bladder, breast and gastric cancers. Even sweet potato peel, usually discarded as waste, contains constituents that may help prevent various types of cancer from developing
Diabetes Control and Prevention
Anthocyanins can also serve as a functional food for prevention and control of diabetes. Antioxidants in general have been found to reduce oxidative stress due to hyperglycemia, and anthocyanins from purple sweet potatoes positively affected liver and renal activity as well as blood pressure in diabetic animal models.
This class of antioxidants, found in purple sweet potato, also had beneficial effects on diabetes-induced endothelial dysfunction in animal subjects.
Conclusion:
The humble sweet potato is full of nutrients, can prevent diabetes, fight cancer and promote positive health.