Can Purple Sweet Potato Fight Cancer?

Purple sweet potato is delicious and highly nutritious. Studies have shown that this root vegetable also has anti-cancer effects. The Mechanism of Purple Sweet Potato’s Anti-Cancer Effect Nutritionists believe sweet potatoes are rich in fiber, vitamin C, beta carotene, and other minerals. Purple sweet potatoes contain the same nutrients as regular sweet potatoes but also have abundant anthocyanins, the flavonoids responsible for the pigmentation of red, blue, and purple flowers, fruits, and vegetables. In recent years, due to increased health awareness, people have paid close attention to the benefits of anthocyanins for human health because they are widely available and safe to consume. Studies have found that anthocyanins have potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory functions and can inhibit the growth and spread of tumor cells, promoting their death. Purple sweet potatoes are widely consumed around the world. The Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) cultivated a purple sweet potato with very high anthocyanin content. In vitro experiments were explicitly conducted on extracts from purple potatoes to observe their inhibitory effects on tumor cells and inflammatory immune factors. The research showed that the purple sweet potato extract produced in Taiwan could inhibit the growth and spread of cancer cells, induce apoptosis, and weaken the activity of inflammatory immune factors. Other Anti-Cancer Foods In addition to purple sweet potato, many dark-colored fruits and vegetables, such as blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, black beans, black rice, pomegranates, and tomatoes, contain anthocyanins. Adding colorful foods to your daily diet will help you gain comprehensive nutrition. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) believes that the five elements—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—correspond to the five organs: liver, heart, spleen, lung, and kidneys. The organs further correspond with the colors green, red, yellow, white, and black. Therefore, eating foods of different colors can maintain the corresponding organs. For example, red foods benefit the heart; green foods the liver; black foods the kidneys; white foods the lungs; and yellow foods the spleen and stomach. This theory makes sense because, from a biochemical perspective, various phytochemicals have different health effects; from the perspective of human energy, different-colored foods meet the energy needs of different organs in the body. Anthocyanin Extract Since anthocyanins are so beneficial, why can’t we just consume anthocyanin extracts directly? There are two important reasons. The first reason is that when anthocyanins are extracted from food, they may no longer be the source found in the food but rather a substance synthesized through biochemical processes. Therefore, we cannot be sure whether the anthocyanin extract is genuinely natural or pure. The second reason is that any biochemical substance in food maintains a balance with other biochemical substances. Plants also maintain a balance of various elements for survival. If you extract one of these plant substances specifically, it becomes a drug-like substance; then the phytoncide becomes a drug-like substance with different effects and actions on the body. For those with tumors and cancer, anthocyanin extracts may be more effective than consuming food. However, from a preventive perspective, I still advocate for consuming more food and less extract. Extracts are usually used for short-term use and may be more effective in treating diseases. In summary, purple sweet potatoes and other dark-colored fruits and vegetables contain copious anthocyanins that can be added to our diets to help us prevent chronic inflammation, increase antioxidant capacity, boost immunity, and fight cancer.