The "Sweet Potato Road" Second International Symposium, hosted by organizations such as the China National Research Institute of Food & Fermentation Industries, was held last week. Liu Qingchang, Vice Dean of the College of Agronomy and Biotechnology at China Agricultural University, pointed out that consuming 100 grams of red-fleshed sweet potatoes daily can meet the human body's requirement for vitamin A.
Sweet Potatoes for Weight Loss and Maintaining Vascular Elasticity
Liu Qingchang stated that as a physiologically alkaline food, sweet potatoes can effectively balance the body's pH levels, thereby strengthening the body and promoting health. In addition to being rich in dietary fiber, sweet potatoes also contain mucoprotein, which can prevent fat deposition in the cardiovascular system, maintain vascular elasticity, and prevent atherosclerosis. Sweet potatoes are also an ideal weight-loss food, as the same quantity has only one-third the calories of rice. Furthermore, they are rich in cellulose and pectin, which have the special function of preventing sugar from being converted into fat.
Purple Sweet Potatoes: Top Food Source of Cancer-Fighting Substances
Purple sweet potatoes are a new variety recently introduced from Japan. Liu Qingchang noted that the anthocyanins in purple sweet potatoes have significant anti-biological oxidation effects and are very effective in slowing down human aging. The content of lysine, copper, manganese, potassium, and zinc in purple sweet potatoes is 5-8 times higher than in ordinary sweet potatoes. Notably, the content of cancer-fighting substances iodine and selenium is more than 20 times higher than in other sweet potatoes, ranking first among all foods.
Biofortified Sweet Potatoes: Rich in β-Carotene
Sweet potatoes also contain various trace elements essential for the human body, with red-fleshed sweet potatoes being particularly rich in β-carotene. Sun Hui, an expert with the China group of the HarvestPlus program, introduced the research results on the cultivation and human intervention trials of biofortified high-β-carotene sweet potatoes at the conference. Sun Hui stated that biofortified high-β-carotene sweet potatoes can effectively prevent and treat vitamin A deficiency in children. However, this type of sweet potato is still in the stage of in-depth research and has not yet been widely promoted.