What we see in the diet of the Okinawans is that they consumed more than two-thirds of their calories from just one food source – sweet potatoes. Are sweet potatoes a health food? You bet they are!
Sweet potatoes are welcomed on our Thanksgiving holiday table as a side or in a pie, but we usually do not talk about them the rest of the year – and we should. Sweet potatoes are a great source of beta-carotene (converts to vitamin A), healthy fats, and antioxidants. And many studies point to them being an anti-aging food.
Here is what we have learned about sweet potatoes from nutritional research:
  • All varieties of sweet potatoes are full of antioxidants, but the purple type of sweet potatoes popular in Japan contains an especially prized antioxidant called anthocyanin. Because anthocyanins protect against DNA damage, they have been shown to be extremely beneficial for overall health, with anti-aging and anti-carcinogenic properties.
  • Already high antioxidant levels in sweet potatoes can be supercharged by a simple electric current treatment, as was presented by American Chemical Society. They placed the potatoes in a salt solution that conducts low amounts of current, which causes them to be stressed (as they are in complex natural systems), which then causes them to release more antioxidants. These naturally occurring compounds called polyphenols can be raised by 60%, and polyphenols help prevent diseases and slow down aging.
    “Many people don’t realize it, but sweet potatoes are one of the world’s most important food crops,”said Dr. Kazunori Hironaka. More than 95 percent are grown in developing countries.
  • In 1991 the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) rated sweet potato as #1 nutritional vegetable, outpacing other vegetables by over 100 points in their scoring system. CSPI gave each vegetable points for dietary fiber, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium. Baked sweet potato received 184 points, followed by baked potato with 83 points, spinach with 76 points, and kale with 55 points.
    “The single most important dietary change for most people would be to replace fatty foods with foods rich in complex carbohydrates — such as sweet potatoes,” stated CSPI.
  • The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences study confirmed that sweet potatoes are a low-glycemic index (GI) food (food that slowly release glucose into the blood), which is great for people with diabetes. Dr. Jon Allen, CALS professor of food science said that consuming sweet potatoes may be beneficial for people with diabetes to control blood sugar, which would be cheaper and so much safer than taking medications.