Purple Potatoes Lower Blood Pressure – New Research

Purple potatoes lower blood pressure in overweight individuals, says the new study, recently published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Not only do they lower blood pressure, but they also help to reduce weight.

People in Korea and Peru knew it for centuries, as purple sweet potato is widely used there for these health benefits along with a number of others. But this is the first study to scientifically prove this belief and quantify the drop in blood pressure in the test group of individuals with excess weight.

Test subjects were eating 6-8 small microwaved sweet potatoes (Purple Majesty) per day. They were able to drop both systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 4 percent. Although this seems small, this can move an individual out of the high risk zone for the heart disease into prehypertension zone. Interestingly enough, none of the study participants gained weight.

People in the US and Canada are careful to avoid potatoes when on a weight loss quest, but they should realize that different types of potatoes have different health benefits. Colour in sweet potatoes is a sign of antioxidants readily available to heal your body from a variety of ailments. Purple potatoes are not very popular in the Western diet, but perhaps it’s time to take another look at this root vegetable that may work better than anti-hypertensive drugs (and without side effects, too).

Purple Sweet Potatoes Recipes

Incorporate purple potatoes into your 1200 calorie DASH diet. One cup of purple potatoes provides two vegetable servings per day and contains only 114 calories. Two cups will cover your daily quota of vegetables. The trick is that you don’t just eat vegetables, you eat vegetables that lower blood pressure effectively.

The easiest healthy way to eat more sweet potatoes

We don’t generally advise microwaving as a healthy way to prepare your food, but we also believe we should look at the alternatives available. If you are so busy that microwaving is the only alternative to eating junk food, then by all means, go ahead and put those sweet potatoes into your microwave. They will store well and you can use them in a number of recipes.

If you can bake instead of microwaving, this option is much healthier.

I love baked sweet potatoes with a drop of lime juice instead of salt. It creates an amazing sweet and sour combination, pleasing to the palate.

Baked purple sweet potatoes can be mashed.

Baked purple sweet potatoes can be used in a salad.

One of the best ways to reap the benefits of the purple sweet potatoes is to juice them. Purple potato juice has healing properties not only for the high blood pressure, but also for digestion and the liver.

If you are BBQ-ing, slice purple potatoes in 1/2 inch thick slices, add some cayenne pepper and lime juice, and wrap them in aluminum foil, tightly closing any holes in it. Place on the BBQ together with the other stuff, and eat as a side dish.

I hope these ideas will help you start using more purple potatoes in your menu. If you are in the US or Canada, try oriental food stores. I always shop for purple sweet potatoes in the Chinese supermarket.

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