Browsing through the vegetable section of our local co-op I discovered, a few years back, this purple potato. I knew immediately I’d found a treasure. Colorful foods are healthy foods, and the purple color comes from anthocyanins.
Anthocyanins are polyphenols, plant chemicals, that are highly nutritious in so many ways (so many that we really focus in on them in our article: Adiponectin).
But first a bit of history.
High up in the Andes (the longest mountain range on earth) running along the western border of South America, seven to ten thousand years ago, indigenous famers cultivated thousands of potato varieties. They found that the purple potatoe wasn’t just a pretty novelty, it was hardy. It came with its own survival strategy. At 12,000 feet, it endured brutal IV radiation, cold nights, and very thin soil.
It was its pigments, the anthocyanins, that gave it its natural armor.
It’s those pigments that make the purple potato stand head and shoulders nutritionally above every other potato. These are the same pigments (flavonoids) found in blueberries, eggplant, and red cabbage, with the following benefits:
- Protection against oxidative stress
- Support for vascular function
- Improved blood pressure
- Improved metabolic markers (those A1c levels)
- Interaction with and feeding the gut microbiome
- Working synergistically with chlorogenic acid
Let’s take a look at that last one.
The purple potato contains a number of chemicals under the heading phenolic compounds (often found in berries and potatoes). The chlorogenic acid and anthocyanins work together to simply do a better job.
Both target oxidative stress
Anthocyanins neutralize free radicals directly and stabilize cell membranes, while chlorogenic acid slows the formation of new free radicals and supports antioxidant enzymes.
They support each other’s anti-inflammatory properties
Anthocyanins suppress a major inflammation switch, while chlorogenic acid reduces cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α). With both pathways dampened, overall inflammatory response drops more sharply.
They complement each other’s influence on glucose metabolism
For diabetics and prediabetics, this is where you need to pay attention. Anthocyanins slow carbohydrate digestion, blunting blood-sugar spikes, while stimulating the release of adiponectin, which improves insulin sensitivity, reduces inflammation, protects blood vessels, and improves fat metabolism. [Ref] In depth analysis of adiponectin is found at this link.
At the same time, chlorogenic acid also reduces glucose absorption and improves insulin sensitivity.
White and yellow potatoes contain chlorogenic acid, but it’s the synergy between the two, anthocyanins and chlorogenic acid, that makes the purple potato a nutritional powerhouse.
And now for something completely different
Studies show that the chemicals we’ve been discussing, these phytochemicals, have been found to reduce inflammation, trigger apoptosis (the death of cancer cells), disrupt cancer-stem-cell pathways, and reduce tumor initiation and progression . . . in the laboratory.
Medicine in the US is money based (greed based, some would say). There are cancer pills that cost under a buck to make but your yearly cost can be over $100,000. As we’ve pointed out time and time again, the biggest lobby in Washington is the Pharm Lobby. Functional medicine does not have a lobby. Universities have the budgets to perform lab experiments (in vitro) and experiments on mice.
Human trials? Forget that. No one’s getting rich off of a purple potato.
Studies were conducted at the Pennsylvania State University; both the cell-culture studies in which extracts from these potatoes did all that above, and the mouse studies.
And we are reminded again and again and again that mouse studies do not translate to humans.
That is very true. Also true: we’ll never see human studies on cancer and the purple potato. But you can take this to the bank: An organic purple potato is one healthy potato, and if you’re diabetic or prediabetic, try to bring them home. Let’s face it, your kids are going to love purple mashed potatoes.
