Food as Medicine: Purple and Orange Sweet Potatoes
The sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, is a humble and underrated vegetable—a tuber that grows underground. Although its name has the adjective sweet in it, when cooked the same way, the glycaemic index of sweet potatoes is lower than that of the normal potato. Moreover, it is fibre-rich. While purple sweet potatoes contain antioxidants called anthocyanins, orange sweet potatoes contain another class of antioxidants called carotenoids, specifically beta-carotene. Antioxidants help prevent systemic inflammation that could lead to diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, etc. Through this blog, I wish to disseminate the benefits of purple and orange sweet potatoes so that local farmers feel sufficiently motivated to cultivate and sell them at produce markets. If the buying public see the new cultivars and are inspired to try them out, we would be on the cusp of a revolution to improve overall public health through health-promoting food.