The humble purple sweet potato: It’s the next major superfood and it should be coming to a grocer’s near you soon.

We have seen it before with a number of different berries: the white cranberry, the pomegranate, and most recently with the Acai berry.  Even beyond just the simple berries: a whole slew of fruits, vegetables and whatnots that all have been the subject of vigourous claims of being the latest and greatest ‘Super Food’.  Anyway right now a strain of purple sweet potato is being developed and tested as the new super food, and it already has scientists boasting that the vegetable may actually stop people from developing cancer. Seriously, that is quite aremarkable claim to hear made about any kind or type of produce, don’t you think?. The idea here is that the designer sweet potato, developed for its purple anti-cancer pigment, is also said to contain inside it some anti-ageing and antioxidant chemicals. A new variety of purple sweet potato has been developed by agricultural experts in the US; the new variety boasts a somewhat thicker purple skin and flesh that is intended to increase the inherent cancer-fighting properties of the vegetable.. Soyoung Lim, a researcher from Kansas State University, said that it differed from purple sweet potato varieties already found in most grocery outlets because both the newer potato’s flesh and skin were purple.

Lim said the potato’s colouring contained the chemical anthocyanin, which is known to lower the risk of cancer and could even possibly slow down certain types of the disease.  According to Lim, “The colour is the important part because the purple colour is responsible for the amount of anthocyanin in the potato.”  Scientists have already used two strands of anthocyanin to treat colon cancer and found that the pigment slowed down the growth of cancerous cells.  Anthocyanin, which produces red, blue or purple colours in different types of food, can also be found in blueberries, red grapes and red cabbage, however the specially grown purple sweet potato has a higher concentration of the chemical than any other species of potato.  Dr Weiqun Wang, who was also involved in testing the potato, has said that the new purple sweet potato tasted sweeter than other potatoes but was still perfectly edible.  According to Wang, “It’s good not only for cancer prevention but other benefits like antioxidants as well.”

The high-concentration purple sweet potato superfood is due for a series of clinical trials next year, so it might actually be a while before it is made available for retail to the general public.  Certainly like I mentioned earlier, there have been so many other food stuffs that have been the topic of claims as to their possible health benefits, though I do not recall before any variety of food that was tagged with such a basic claim that carried with it such potentially major implications for human health and wellness.  As the new purple sweet potato is put through its paces, so to speak, through the next year or so, I look forward to hearing just how impressive the clinical trial results are.