Dig In: Purple Potatoes Have Vibrant Health Benefits

Purple Potatoes by razvan.orendovici, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License  by  razvan.orendovici 

Ever wish your favorite comfort food had a bit more pizzazz? It may be high time to diversify from your average meat and potatoes dinner, and this brightly colored vegetable is just the thing. The skin of the purple potato provides a shock of color that can snap us out of our yellow- and red-skinned comas, and boost our health at the same time.

The flesh of these colorful nightshades, praised recently in Mark Bittman’s New York Times column On Growing (And Eating Potatoes), come in many blue and purple varieties, though the Purple Viking and Purple Majesty are two of the most popular for their intense color. They have deep violet, ink-colored skin, and the flesh inside ranges from solid blue to speckled. Perhaps best of all, they taste just like the good old potato that we like so much.

Unearth Healthy Color 

We know that blueberries are uniquely advantageous to health because of the pigment in the skin – that deep blue-purple color is a sign of antioxidant richness. Is the same true for a potato hued with blue? Absolutely. While blueberries, particularly wild blueberries, have the high skin-to-pulp ratio and deep color that makes them an antioxidant leader, the antioxidant anthocyanin, responsible for this color, is also behind the skin color of the purple potato. It’s found in other foods, too, like cabbage and eggplant.

While potatoes are challenged with a soiled reputation due to our over-love of the fried variety, potatoes are a vegetable that provides wonderful health benefits. They have moderate fat and calories, are full of vitamins C and B6, and provide a high dose of potassium, an essential nutrient we often get too little of.

Thanks to anthocyanins, the Purple Viking, a white-fleshed potato that Bittman describes as having “a purple skin with pink splashes, as pretty as it sounds” can be depended upon to deliver the anti-cancer, heart-healthy, anti-aging benefits that most deeply colored fruit and veggies do. In fact, they have been recently recognized for their potential to lower blood pressure. Bittman extols the virtues of this earthly purple gem for summer because, he says, they are a delightful food for the grill, and they shine in soups. They also cook and sauté quickly, maintain a perfectly crisp outside, and are full of flavor.

Purple potatoes are often available from local farmers and can be found in local grocery stores, but if you want to plant your very own and you live in Maine, you can obtain your seeds from the Maine Potato Lady in Guilford. Place your seed orders now to ship the last week of April, and you can be fixing up a blue-hued plate in a matter of months that your guests will really dig.

Color Your World! Try These Purple Potato Recipes

Antioxidant Superfruit or Super Supplements?

The more we know about antioxidants, the more we realize that a diet that provides plenty of them is an important defense against disease. However, these benefits may not hold for those taking supplements to get their antioxidants rather than relying on dietary antioxidants – those occurring naturally in foods like fruits and vegetables. According to a new study, supplements meant to provide protection against disease may actually increase health risks.


An Antioxidant Primer

Antioxidants are important because they wage the battle against “free radicals”. Free radicals are unstable oxygen molecules that cause cancer and heart disease. Aging itself has been determined to be an accumulation of “oxidative stress” which is the result of damage done by these free radical forms of oxygen. Dietary antioxidants – those found in fruits and vegetables – neutralize these free radicals and prevent the cell damage at the source of these diseases.

Antioxidants also protect against inflammation and are thought to be a leading factor in brain aging, Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases of aging. Scientists continue to study the potential benefits of antioxidants in brain health, urinary tract health, vision health, and heart health, in addition to cancer prevention. As scientists have come to understand the oxidative process in the body, they have also come to understand that those people who eat lots of fruits and vegetables, which provide these crucial antioxidants, tend to live longer and be healthier.

We talk about wild blueberries a lot at Wild About Health! because antioxidant amounts are notoriously high in deeply colored pigments of the skins of fruits and vegetables. That’s especially true of wild blueberries, because of their deep-blue skin and their high skin-to-pulp ratio. While the “antioxidant superfruit” moniker conjures otherworldly powers, they are grounded in a very natural potency that does battle against free radicals and the diseases caused by aging the best way we know how.

An Important Knowledge Gap

It stands to reason that in an effort to get the benefits of antioxidants we would turn to supplements. However, a recent study out of Cedar-Sinai in Los Angeles has called supplements into question. The report posits that high doses of antioxidant supplements, such as vitamins C and E, raise the risk of dangerous changes in human cells, and as a result, may actually increase the risk of cancer.

Researchers associated with the study assure us that taking a multivitamin is still OK, but caution that more does not mean better, and could mean worse. George Jetson may have been served his meal in pill form by his robotic maid, but such a lifestyle may contradict good health. In fact, it is in the comparison of natural nutrients and supplements where we reach a gap in our knowledge.

Antioxidants in a supplement simply do not have the same effect as those found naturally in fruits and vegetables. What’s more, the potential negative effects of high dosing that can occur in supplements are not replicated in foods. Something is missing – something happens with antioxidants occurring naturally in food that cannot be reproduced in a supplement. From the article in UK’s Telegraph:

“Yet if the value of antioxidant supplements is at best uncertain, the evidence for the life-prolonging benefits of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables seems clear. The challenge now is to explain why they work in this form but appear to fail as isolated key chemicals.”

While the study prompts questions about supplement dosing (when a dose becomes an overdose), other questions concern how nutrients in naturally occurring antioxidants work in combination with other chemicals enabling the positive effects. Is it a secret synchronicity provided by nature? Or is it simply that those who eat foods high in antioxidants, like fruits and veggies, do other things that are healthy too?


 The Bottom Line

The bottom line is: there may be no short cut to good health. In a world rife with easy answers to health, this latest information reinforces the need to hold our natural sources of nutrients in the highest esteem while remaining informed about the consequences of those that come in a bottle. Foods, compared with supplements, come out on top. For now, George Jetson can keep his bite-sized meal – along with his flying car and robotic maid.

Start engaging in natural anti-aging: Find out about the #1 Antioxidant Superfruit.

Nature’s Blueprint for Healthy Eating: Smart Birds Choose Smart Berries

According to a recent study about the eating habits of migratory birds, birds take in huge amounts of antioxidants by loading up on certain high-color, high-antioxidant berries before migration – up to triple their body weight in berries per day, or the equivalent to a human swallowing over 300 pounds!

This University of Rhode Island study found that birds seek out dark pigment berries, and tend to favor those with the highest antioxidant count. According to the leader of the study, the berries’ antioxidants may help the birds combat stress and inflammation that they experience during long flights. That birds turn to berries to help them accomplish the trips of their lifetimes provides fascinating evidence into the natural benefits of antioxidant-rich berries, and might tell us a lot about our own eating habits.

Our long flight, of course, occurs closer to the ground, and over the course of 80 or so years. Antioxidants, which occur in the dark purple and blue pigments of berries like blueberries (wild blueberries have highest antioxidant content of twenty other common fruits) help mitigate the effect of free radicals which create a destructive process in our cells. Resulting oxidative damage plays a huge role in many of our modern-day diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and diseases of aging.

Are you attracted to bright blues? Do you eat from the rainbow? When it comes to good health and longevity, we might benefit from thinking like a bird when planning our next meal. This study provides more evidence that color is truly the key to spreading our wings and making that great flight we call our life as healthy as possible!

Beet Lovers: Don’t Read This

Love beets? That delicious earthy flavor makes them a favorite in salads, and while we’ve all had them pickled or canned, baked fresh beets can be superb. If beets are a staple in your kitchen, that’s great news. Beets are full of those natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters, and they are one of the healthiest foods you may or may not be putting on your plates.

But even if you are a die hard beet eater, let’s face it—it’s hard to eat them morning, noon and night. For those seeking an alternative food that still has the cancer fighting potential that comes with the deep purple color, New York Times Health writer Tara Parker Pope helps you expand your horizons. In her article Blueberries Morning, Noon & Night  she figures when it comes to this kind of intense nutrition, if you’re stopping at breakfast, your missing opportunities to intensify the health benefits of your plate.

According to Pope, “These nutrient-rich fruits are available year-round and don’t spoil, and blueberries have been associated with better memory in animal studies.” She recommends integrative recipes like Rice Pudding with Blueberries or Papaya and Blueberry Salad With Ginger-Lime Dressing.

If you could use a break from the beloved beet, your health doesn’t have to suffer. Just keep in mind the importance color – that pigment you see in those bright vibrant fruits and vegetables is called anthocyanin, and that’s where the antioxidant activity lies. Of course, all colors of the spectrum are good for dressing up a plate. Consider deep greens, oranges, blues, reds and purples. Wild blueberries are always a powerful pick – because wilds are smaller size in size compared to their cultivated cousins, they have more skin, and that’s where the pigment is.

Antioxidants: Health Benefits That Might Surprise You

Wild blueberries are a fantastic fruit. Pancakes, smoothies, salads and desserts aren’t the same without them! On the surface, they seem like a fun, delicious, and healthy food that deserves a place in your daily diet. But there’s another reason to eat them. The little blue fruit has a secret deep within its dark blue color, and that secret is antioxidants.
Wild blueberries are an antioxidant powerhouse – test after test, they come out as a leader. When it comes to living a long, disease-free life, the importance of this simply cannot be underestimated.
What do antioxidants do in my body?
Antioxidants are a hot topic today. Why? They help our bodies protect against disease and age-related health risks. According to Susan Davis, MS, RD, Nutrition Advisor to the Wild Blueberry Association of North America, research focused on this area of health “is not just fascinating but incredibly consequential for members of our community and the public at large.” Here’s why:
Every day, our cells wage a battle against free radicals – unstable oxygen molecules associated with cancer, heart disease and the effects of aging. Dietary antioxidants are the antidote. These phytonutrients, natural substances found in fruits and vegetables, neutralize free radicals and help prevent cell damage. Antioxidants also protect against inflammation, thought to be a leading factor in brain aging, Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases of aging.
Where do I get an “antioxidant”?
Start with wild blueberries. They have the highest antioxidant capacity per serving, compared with more than 20 other fruits. Using a lab testing procedure called Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC), USDA researcher Ronald Prior, Ph.D., found that a one-cup serving of wild blueberries had more total antioxidant capacity (TAC) than a serving of cranberries, strawberries, plums, raspberries and even cultivated blueberries.
Wild Blueberries also outperformed selected fruits in an advanced procedure known as the cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) assay, a new means of measuring bioactivity inside cells. (The Cellular Antioxidant Activity Study was conducted by a Cornell University research team led by Dr. Rui Hai Liu.) As a result of their intense nutritional benefit, wild blueberries are implicated in areas of:
  • Brain Health
  • Cancer Prevention
  • Heart Health
  • Urinary Tract Health
  • Vision Health
The Dark (Blue) Secret of Wild Blueberries
The secret to wild blueberries’ powerful advantage is in the deep blue color. Potent antioxidants are highly concentrated in the deep-blue pigments of wild blueberries. Wild blueberries deliver more antioxidant punch due in part to their pulp-to-skin ratio: they are smaller than cultivated berries, which means when we’re eating wild, we’re eating more of the good stuff per bite.
And, the research into the health benefits of wild blueberries continues. Cardiovascular heath and metabolic syndrome headlined the Wild Blueberry Research Summit, held last year in Bar Harbor, Maine where compelling new data to substantiate the connection between a blueberry-rich diet and prevention of two devastating illnesses: cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Now, doesn’t that wild blueberry pie taste even better?
Read more about the research into the health benefits of this antioxidant powerhouse.

Frozen Bombshell: Why Nutrition No Longer = Fresh

Whether your cupboards look like Dr. Oz has set up shop in your kitchen, or the puffy pastries and cheesy chips give away your nutritionally-challenged status, we all struggle with affordability and availability of healthy foods. How can we better integrate nutrition into our lives?

We must making healthy eating easier. This demand for year-round availability of nutritionally potent food at good prices seems to have caused a change in thinking about what constitutes healthy eating. For some, this change in thinking may not be news, but for others the shift could be seismic.

For decades, nutrition was synonymous with fresh food – it seemed to be the only way to enjoy the nutritional benefits of fruits and vegetables. It meant fresh from the tree, vine, plant or ground. It meant high nutrient content – the best thing you could put in your mouth.

Fresh is great, that’s true. But here’s the snag: often what we think of as fresh – unfrozen, unpackaged fruits and vegetables available in the produce section of the supermarket – has been subject to weeks in delivery trucks. Travel and transport to deliver fresh food to your local market may mean weeks off of the vine, tree or plant. Furthermore, by the time you put your selection in your cart, bring it home, and consume it, several more days have gone by.

Not only are our choices limited to seasonal and productivity shifts in the produce aisle, but when you eat “fresh” are you really eating fresh?

A New Kind of Fresh

A 2009 State Indicator Report was recently released showing that no state in the nation is meeting objectives for recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables. Access and availability figure prominently on the list of challenges in reaching nutritional benchmarks. Taking advantage of frozen fruits and vegetables could serve as the key to overcoming these barriers.

It may go against our intuition, but thanks to advances in technology, frozen is just as good as fresh. In 1998, the Food & Drug Administration confirmed that frozen fruits and vegetables provide the same essential nutrients and health benefits as fresh. For example, fruit is quick frozen at the peak of ripeness (allowing it to be picked at the perfect time, not prior to its peak in efforts to prevent spoilage). This “individually quick frozen” method (known as IQF) allows for the fast preservation of taste and nutrition, and the fruit can remain frozen for over two years without losing flavor or nutritional value. (That means an IQF wild blueberry has all its antioxidant power locked in until its ready to be used!)

For those unfamiliar with the nutritional value and convenience that frozen fruits and veggies provide, it can seem like a whole new way to shop. The frozen food aisle can serve as an extension of the produce section, offering good, healthy food, season in and season out.

Toward a Healthier Budget

More and more, consumers are tuned into to nutritional value: we can’t afford to make nutritional sacrifices, but at the same time, food budgets are tight. Interest in frozen fruits and veggies may also be driven by a concern about stretching budgets. Frozen means competitive prices and low waste – fruits and veggies can be purchased in bulk sizes, and portions are available in the freezer whenever they are needed.

The Bottom Line

If you are still waiting for summer to get a brief taste of healthy foods, it’s time to change your thinking. You need to make nutritionally potent fruits and vegetables a priority every day of the year. Nutrition is no longer synonymous with fresh: when it comes to getting your fruits and veggies, make frozen your secret nutritional weapon!

Wild Blueberries Make a Splash in Health Magazine!

Bravo Wild Blues! Experts at Health Magazine are touting them as one of America’s Healthiest Superfoods for Women.

There are plenty of reasons to celebrate wild blueberries as a food that delivers mega benefits. They lead in antioxidant power, and antioxidants help fight aging, cancer and heart disease.

Health magazine also credits wild blueberries for their role in preventing memory loss, improving motor skills, lowering blood pressure and fighting wrinkles. Nutrition author Kate Geagan is quoted as saying “They’re truly one of nature’s ultimate antiaging foods.”

Other nutritional winners? Wild Alaskan salmon, oats, walnuts, and avocados.

See the Superfoods list at Health.com.