Eat More Purple Sweet Potatoes: They Protect the Brain and Liver, Anti-Cancer and More

Purple sweet potatoes are packed with nutrients that are great for your health. Purple sweet potato contains antioxidants that are good for your heart, digestion, cognitive function, and liver health. Because of their many health benefits, purple sweet potatoes are also good for diabetes.

There are many ways to include healthy purple sweet potatoes in your diet. One of the easiest ways to eat a purple sweet potato is to bake it and spread a healthy topping. You can also steam or boil purple sweet potatoes to add nutrients, fiber, and color to your meals.

In this article, you will learn about the many reasons why purple sweet potatoes are so good for you. You will also find out recipes on the best way of enjoying this colorful root vegetable.

What is Purple Sweet Potato?

Purple sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas L cultivar Ayamurasaki) get their distinct color from compounds called anthocyanins. These colorful flavonoids have powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that have a number of health benefits.

Research has shown that sweet potatoes rich in anthocyanins are good for hypertension, diabetes, and boosting cardiovascular health.

A popular variety is the Okinawan purple sweet potato. Other type is Stokes purple sweet potato.

Purple Sweet Potato Nutrition

Sweet potatoes with purple flesh are from the same family as regular sweet potatoes. It is well known that sweet potatoes are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber and have good nutritional value.

The thing that sets purple sweet potatoes apart when it comes to their nutritional value is that they are packed with antioxidants.

For example, a review on the benefits of sweet potatoes reported that the Ayamurasaki purple sweet potato contains many antioxidants with free-radicals scavenging activity. Enzymes in these purple root vegetable help to lower inflammation and have a beneficial effect on general health.

Research has also found that sweet potatoes, in general, are a low-glycemic index foodand can be easily digested. Compounds in purple-fleshed sweet potatoes also have compounds that help to lower blood glucose (anti-hyperglycemic).

The nutritional value of sweet purple potatoes is so great that researchers call them a functional food because of their abundance of nutrients, minerals, and antioxidants. 

Purple sweet potato is rich in antioxidants

A brief look at the antioxidant content of purple sweet potato shows just how healthy it is.

Although regular sweet potatoes are a healthy food, purple sweet potatoes may be even better for you. Purple sweet potatoes have 2.5 times more antioxidants (anthocyanins) than their orange-fleshed counterparts.

Research into the benefits of purple sweet potato shows that they have more antioxidants than red cabbage, elderberries, or grape skins. Anthocyanins from purple sweet potato showed higher levels of activity than ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

Would it be possible to class purple sweet potatoes among the superfoods? For example, doctors from WebMD say that blueberries are a superfood because of their antioxidant content. However, research has revealed that purple sweet potatoes have 3.2 times more antioxidant activity than blueberries. (

Health Benefits of Purple Sweet Potato

Let’s look in more detail at the many reasons why eating purple sweet potatoes is good for your health.

Purple Sweet Potato Can Help to Lower Blood Pressure

Including more purple sweet potato in your diet could benefit your health if you suffer from hypertension.

One study involving adults with high blood pressure found that compounds in purple sweet potato helped reduce blood pressure. The subjects consumed 250 ml of purple sweet potato juice every day for 4 weeks. Researchers noted that systolic blood pressure was significantly lower at the end of the trial period.

Other studies have found that purple sweet potato with a high anthocyanin content had a positive effect in lowering hypertension. The results of many studies point to the good effect of purple sweet potato antioxidants in helping to lower blood pressure.

As well as including more purple sweet potato in your diet for its hypotensive effect, learn about more ways to lower blood pressure fast.

Purple Sweet Potato May Boost Cognitive Function

One of the benefits of consuming purple sweet potatoes is that they have a positive effect on your brain activity.

Researchers have found that anthocyanins from purple-fleshed sweet potatoes reduce inflammation that affects cognitive performance. Purple sweet potato extracts have the potential to enhance memory function and positively affect the brain.

In one trial involving rats, researchers found that anthocyanins from purple sweet potatoes had a protective effect on brain activity. Anthocyanins helped the brain recover after a stroke by increasing certain proteins that repair damaged brain tissue.

Purple sweet potato is just one of the many foods that are good for your brain. Learn about what else you can eat to improve your memory, concentration, and focus.

Purple Sweet Potato Can Help Improve Digestive Health

Purple sweet potato juice or baked purple sweet potato can help to improve your digestion.

A 2016 study found that the nutritional content of purple sweet potatoes can help to improve your gut’s microbiota. Anthocyanins help to increase the number of beneficial probiotics and that helps with digestion. Researchers noted a higher concentration of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus probiotics after ingesting purple sweet potato.

The reason for the improvement in digestive health was due to the fact that purple sweet potato has prebiotic qualities which act as “food” for healthy gut bacteria (probiotics).

Consuming purple sweet potatoes can also be good if you suffer from chronic or acute digestive conditions. The journal Digestive Diseases and Sciences reported that sweet potato is among the foods that don’t provoke symptoms of digestive conditions such as gastroparesis (delayed gastric emptying).

If you are recovering from a bout of gastroenteritis (stomach flu), you could add purple sweet potato to a bland diet to help recover quicker from a stomach bug.

Purple Sweet Potato Extracts May Help Prevent Gout

Purple sweet potatoes can be good for you if you suffer from gout because they help to lower uric acid.

The journal Food & Function reported that anthocyanins in purple sweet potato can reduce uric acid. The study involving mice found that purple sweet potato extracts significantly inhibited enzymes that affect uric acid levels. The research concluded that purple sweet potato has potential use as a functional food in anti-hyperuricemia remedies.