Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Purple Potatoes

From a recent review on diet and inflammation by Dr. Leo Galland, who, when I was a kid, actually used to be my doctor: “Inflammation has recently emerged as an important aspect of the development of age-related infirmity and the major chronic diseases of industrialized societies,…heart disease,…diabetes, Alzheimer’s…,and…cancer.” And we have markers of inflammation now, like C-reactive protein, which are easy to measure, and give a sense of how much inflammation there is in our bodies, which is predictive for the development of some of these diseases.  

We know plant-based foods in general have anti-inflammatory effects—particularly fruits and vegetables—but not all plant foods. From a 2010 review, extra virgin olive oil decreases inflammatory markers compared to corn oil, or non-virgin oil. Tomato juice helps, but raw tomatoes don’t appear to. Walnuts, red wine, and flax meal work; garlic powder doesn’t. Mixed data on tea, but sweet cherries do seem to decrease inflammation.

There have since been a few new studies to add to this list; one showing that those eating just four servings of legumes a week—lentils, chickpeas, peas, beans—dropped C-reactive protein levels a whopping 40% in two months. 

And then, apparently, the first study ever to address the effects of potato consumption on oxidation and inflammation in humans was published. And not just any potatoes; there’s all sorts of new varieties out there.

First, though, they looked at regular potatoes, white russet potatoes. One steamed potato a day for six weeks. Inflammation, as measured by C-reactive protein levels in the blood, tended to go up. Next, potatoes with yellow flesh did a bit better. But neither were significantly different than baseline. Only purple potatoes, potatoes with purple flesh, significantly decreased inflammation.

And the same thing was found for oxidation. In this 2012 study, within hours of consumption, purple potatoes increased the antioxidant capacity of one’s bloodstream, whereas white potato starch appeared to have a pro-oxidant effect.

And purple potatoes also appeared to help lower blood pressure in folks with hypertension. They put people on six to eight small microwaved purple potatoes a day, and concluded “purple potatoes are an effective hypotensive agent and lower the risk of heart disease and stroke in hypertensive subjects without weight gain.”

Combined with the reduction in inflammation and DNA damage, purple potatoes offer “consumers an improved nutritional choice in potato consumption.”

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Serena.

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• Galland L. Diet and inflammation. Nutr Clin Pract. 2010 Dec; 25(6):634-40.
• Hermsdorff HH, Zulet MA, Puchau B, Martínez JA. Fruit and vegetable consumption and proinflammatory gene expression from peripheral blood mononuclear cells in young adults: a translational study. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2010 May 13; 7:42.
• Watzl B. Anti-inflammatory effects of plant-based foods and of their constituents. Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2008 Dec; 78(6):293-8.
• Hermsdorff HH, Zulet MÁ, Abete I, Martínez. A legume-based hypocaloric diet reduces proinflammatory status and improves metabolic features in overweight/obese subjects. Eur J Nutr. 2011 Feb; 50(1):61-9.
• Kaspar KL, Park JS, Brown CR, Mathison BD, Navarre DA, Chew BP. Pigmented Potato Consumption Alters Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory Damage in Men. J Nutr. 2011 Jan; 141(1):108-11.
• Vinson JA, Demkosky CA, Navarre DA, Smyda MA. High-antioxidant potatoes: acute in vivo antioxidant source and hypotensive agent in humans after supplementation to hypertensive subjects. J Agric Food Chem. 2012 Feb 6.

Images thanks to Fir0002 via Wikimedia Commons, and Peggy Greb.

• Alzheimer’s disease
• anthocyanins
• anti-inflammatory
• beans
• blood pressure
• brain health
• C-reactive protein
• cancer
• cardiovascular disease
• cherries
• chickpeas
• chronic diseases
• diabetes
• DNA damage
• flaxseeds
• fruit
• heart disease
• high blood pressure
• hypertension
• inflammation
• legumes
• lentils
• microwaving
• oils
• olive oil
• oxidative stress
• peas
• Plant-Based Diets
• potatoes
• red wine
• seeds
• sweet potatoes
• tea
• tomato juice
• tomatoes
• vegetables
• walnuts