As is well known, sweet potatoes are very nutritious. However, have you heard that sweet potatoes can prevent cancer? In the recently released "ranking" of 20 anti-cancer vegetables by the Japanese National Cancer Research Center, sweet potatoes took the top spot. Cancer cells originate from human epithelial cells, and sweet potatoes are rich in starch, carotene, and more than 10 trace elements such as potassium and iron. They can protect the structural integrity of human epithelial cells, inhibit viral activity, block the production of nitrosamines in the gastrointestinal tract, and eliminate the toxic effects caused by mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and other substances in food or the environment, thereby interrupting the carcinogenic process of toxic metals. Sweet potatoes are called by experts the most balanced health food. And dehydroepiandrosterone, a unique steroid hormone in sweet potatoes that is secreted by the adrenal glands and similar to androgen, can both prevent cancer and prolong life.
In winter, when eating roasted sweet potatoes, it's best not to eat them with the skin. The hot roasted sweet potatoes are fragrant and sweet, some even with "sugar oil" oozing out. The scorched skin of the sweet potato is especially popular, and many people eat it whole with the skin. Experts say that roasted sweet potatoes should not be eaten with the skin because the skin contains more alkaloids, and excessive consumption can cause gastrointestinal discomfort. Especially the skin with black spots should not be eaten, as it can cause poisoning.
When eating sweet potatoes, you must pay attention to the time and method: 1. Sweet potatoes should not be eaten raw because the cell membranes of the starch in raw sweet potatoes are not broken down by high temperature and are difficult to digest in the human body. At the same time, when cooking sweet potatoes, the steaming time should be appropriately extended to destroy the "gasification enzyme" contained in them, so that you will not experience discomfort such as bloating, heartburn, belching, nausea, and gas after eating. 2. It's good to eat sweet potatoes with other foods. If sweet potatoes are eaten with rice and flour, a complementary effect of protein can be achieved. If paired with pickles or fresh radishes at the same time, it can reduce the production of stomach acid. 3. It's best to eat sweet potatoes at noon. This is because the calcium contained in sweet potatoes needs 4-5 hours to be absorbed by the human body, and the sunlight in the afternoon can promote calcium absorption. In this case, eating sweet potatoes at lunch allows the calcium to be fully absorbed before dinner, without affecting the absorption of calcium from other foods at dinner. To eat sweet potatoes in winter, 3 conditions must be met. The first condition is to try not to eat them on an empty stomach. Eating sweet potatoes on an empty stomach increases the chance of acid reflux and heartburn because sweet potatoes themselves contain relatively high carbohydrates and are somewhat sweet, increasing the possibility of reflux. The second is that it is best not to eat more than three taels (about 150 grams) of sweet potatoes in a day. And if you have acid reflux, you can split the three taels into smaller portions. The third is not to eat sweet potatoes with overly sweet things. Sweet potatoes are sweet themselves, and if you eat them with sweet food at the same time, the possibility of reflux doubles. Therefore, sweet potatoes should not be eaten with overly sweet foods.
Which groups of people should not eat sweet potatoes? Patients with diarrhea and diabetics should not eat sweet potatoes. People with stomach problems should not eat too much to avoid bloating. What to do if you get acid reflux from eating sweet potatoes? Sweet potatoes contain a substance called "gasification enzyme," which produces a large amount of stomach acid in the human stomach and intestines, causing heartburn, nausea, and vomiting of acid water after eating. Therefore, it is important to master the correct way to eat sweet potatoes, such as eating them with rice and flour and controlling the portion size at one time; eating some pickles or salty soup with sweet potatoes; cooking the sweet potatoes until they are thoroughly steamed and boiled to use the steam to destroy most of the gasification enzyme; soaking raw sweet potatoes in a small amount of alkali or alum, or a salt water solution before cooking them into mature food. How to choose good sweet potatoes? Sweet potatoes with a dark brown skin or black spots are contaminated with black spot bacteria. The toxicity of this bacteria can make sweet potatoes hard and bitter, which is highly toxic to the human body. Moreover, this toxin is not easily destroyed by its biological activity whether boiled or roasted, so it must absolutely not be eaten, otherwise the consequences could be disastrous.