Recently, purple potatoes are genetically modified foods circulated online. For a time, people refused to eat purple sweet potatoes. Nowadays, there are many kinds of vegetables and fruits on the market, including small tomatoes and big strawberries. Besides the sweet potatoes that we usually contact most, there are purple potatoes. Looking at that rare purple in food, there is a suspicion of genetically modified.

In fact, plants are inherently diverse. The same thing, big or small, different colors. In our daily life, we usually only come into contact with one of the products, just because this product is the most common planting. Crossing different varieties of the same plant can breed products of different colors. These are not genetically modified. Mixed-race animals are the best examples.


Purple sweet potatoes have been natural food since ancient times. In the book "Chinese Sweet Potato Cultivation", page 34 points out that the meat color of sweet potatoes can be divided into: purple, orange, apricot yellow, yellow, white and so on. This shows that purple is one of the inherent flesh colors of sweet potatoes.

So why does purple sweet potato appear purple? In fact, purple sweet potatoes are rich in anthocyanin, which is a water-soluble natural pigment widely existing in plants and belongs to flavonoids. Anthocyanin is also a major contributor to the color of plant petals. Anthocyanin exists in vacuoles of plant cells and can be transformed from chlorophyll. Anthocyanin formation and accumulation can be promoted by hypoxia and low temperature. Among many purple foods, purple sweet potatoes are popular because of their high yield and low cost, as well as their high anthocyanin content.

Since anthocyanins play such an important role in plants, what can they do for us? Human beings are constantly oxidizing from birth to death, so people will be sick and aging. As a strong antioxidant, anthocyanin can delay the process of oxidative death of human cells. Vitamin C and E are two commonly used antioxidants, and anthocyanins are 20 and 50 times as much, and can be absorbed by 100% of the body. After taking them for 20 minutes, they can be detected in the blood. Anthocyanins can enhance the elasticity of blood vessels, protect the liver, lower blood pressure, blood sugar, blood lipids, reduce the occurrence of heart disease and stroke, enhance the immune system ability to resist various diseases, and have anti-aging effect. Anthocyanins are also effective cosmetic foods. Ultraviolet radiation can kill 50% of human skin cells, while anthocyanins can protect 85% of skin cells from death. Europeans call anthocyanins "oral skin cosmetics". Natural pigments containing anthocyanins, radish red pigments, cabbage red pigments, purple sweet potato pigments, grape skin red pigments, red rice red pigments as natural food coloring raw materials, not only give food colorful color, but also have a certain health function. Human beings have entered the anthocyanin era of the 21st century from the antibiotics and vitamins era of the 20th century.

Purple sweet potato contains not only anthocyanins, but also many vitamins, amino acids and other substances. It is recognized as a longevity food. So if we want to live a long and healthy life, then we can eat purple sweet potatoes boldly.