There are countless articles and videos on the Internet touting sweet potatoes' anti-cancer properties. Many of them come from nutritionists and health professionals. But what are they based on? In order to clarify this inexplicable medical information, Lin Qingshun, a retired professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, has 40 years of medical research experience, published nearly 200 research papers, and served as a reviewer for more than 60 world-renowned medical journals. Published several articles, the following is a consolidated report of sweet potato anti-cancer rumors.
Schematic／
. On January 13, 2011, this article was reprinted on the "Chinese Vegetarian Network" in the mainland. This reprint is understandable, after all, for vegetarians, this is something to brag about.
In any case, this article has gradually transformed into many different versions since then, creating the myth of "sweet potato fights cancer". . This leap from "super" to "first place" is due to another mainland article.
This article is written in very blunt English, and the title is "Eating more sweet potatoes can prevent cancer" (Note 1). It says in the first paragraph that sweet potato ranks first among 20 cancer-fighting vegetables. Well, let's take a look at what kind of clinical trials can confirm that sweet potatoes are number one. There are at least 100 types of cancer in humans, multiply that by 20 types of vegetables, multiply that by 100 patients (definitely need more), and you'll have to do at least 200,000 tests, multiply that by 10 years of tracking... (maybe more long).
Can you imagine how much it would cost to "preliminarily" determine the number one sweet potato? $10 million may be an underestimate, and $100 million may not be an exaggeration. What kind of institution or individual would be willing to provide such research funding to test a sweet potato of several dozen yuan?
The third paragraph of the article also said that sweet potatoes contain DHEA, and this steroid hormone has anti-cancer effects. However (instead, most studies have found that it may cause cancer).
This article was published on the website of LookChem, which means "Look for Chemicals". It is a website dedicated to people searching and buying chemicals. It is headquartered in Hangzhou. No wonder the English is so blunt. As to why it chose to communicate in English, it is unknown.
In any case, dozens of chemical names appear in this article, including the widely circulated so-called cancer-fighting DHEA. By now, you should know what this article was created for. It's just that a lot of nutritionists, health care experts, and natural therapists believed it to be true and regarded it as a teaching material for anti-cancer food, which led to a lot of innocent people being fooled into believers of "the number one anti-cancer sweet potato". .
After clarifying the article on sweet potato anti-cancer, some readers sent 3 pieces of information about the American version of sweet potato anti-cancer advocates. The first one was published in October 2017, "Is sweet potato a cancer-fighting food?" (Note 2), the author is Bonnie. Singedon (Bonnie Singleton). Although this person is a master of music, but often publishes medical articles. Lin Qingshun had read this article for a long time, and at the time decided that the information on sweet potato anti-cancer provided was purely conjecture.
The second article is the article "Sweet potato protein V.s. cancer" (Note 3) published in November 2015, the author is Michael. Craig (Michael Greger), although he has a doctor of medicine degree, but his work is through writing and speaking, telling people not to eat food from animals (meat, eggs, milk).
To promote this idea, he founded NutritionFacts in 2011, where this sweet potato article was published. His extreme approach to promoting a "whole plant" vegetarian diet has been criticized for many reasons (Note 4).
The scientific research on sweet potato anti-cancer mentioned in this article is almost all done with "sweet potato storage protein" (Sporamin), and almost all of its "treatment" objects are cancer cells in petri dishes , not cancer patients.
Even if he mentioned "reducing cancer metastasis", it was just a small mouse model experiment. The "reduced gallbladder cancer" he mentioned was a small questionnaire (64 patients) in which sweet potatoes were just one of many so-called cancer-fighting foods. (The patient was asked how many sweet potatoes, radishes, peppers, mangoes, cantaloupe, papaya, oranges, etc. he ate in the past year. Could you please answer truthfully?)So, what he called
Another article, "The Amazing Anticancer Effects of Sweet Potatoes" (Note 5), was written by Cyrus. This article was published on one of at least two diet-related for-profit websites that Cyrus Khabatta, a nutritionist, has created in addition to his book.
In addition to the sensational title, he also said in the article that sweet potato storage proteins have been shown to slow the growth and metastasis of colorectal cancer in patients with colorectal cancer. Eleven references are provided below his article. But,. A search of the Public Library of Medicine also failed to find any human trials of sweet potato or sweet potato storage proteins. To sum up, do you still believe that there is a scientific basis for sweet potatoes to fight cancer?
These three American versions of sweet potato anti-cancer myths are a little different from the mainland version, that is, the American version says that sweet potato fights cancer because it contains sweet potato storage protein, while the mainland version says it contains DHEA. already said. So, if you believe the sweet potato storage protein in sweet potatoes can help you fight cancer, be sure to eat it raw, and you may need to eat 100 a day to reach an effective dose. With that said, do you have any other sweet potato anti-cancer myths to share?
After I finished writing the solution of the sweet potato anti-cancer article, a friend told me privately that there are many people who really believe that sweet potatoes are anti-cancer, and some people rely on this statement to sell sweet potatoes for a living, so it is best to Also talk about the benefits of sweet potatoes.
Raw sweet potatoes contain water (77%), carbohydrates (20.1%), protein (1.6%), and fiber (3%), sweet potatoes contain almost no fat. A medium-sized cooked sweet potato contains about 27 grams of carbohydrates. Among them, starch accounts for about 53%, and monosaccharides (glucose, fructose), sucrose and maltose account for about 32%. .
A medium cooked sweet potato contains about 3.8 grams of fiber. Among them, soluble (pectin) accounts for about 15-23%, and insoluble (such as cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) accounts for about 77-85%. Soluble fiber (pectin) can increase satiety by slowing the digestion of sugars and starches, thereby reducing food intake and reducing blood sugar spikes. Insoluble fiber has health benefits, such as reducing diabetes risk and improving gut health.
. Sweet potatoes also contain many micronutrients, such as vitamins A and C and the minerals calcium and iron. In short, (Note 6).
It is rumored that sweet potatoes can fight cancer because they contain the steroid hormone DHEA.
Studies have shown that "sweet potato storage protein" (sporamin) has anti-oxidation, anti-cancer and other effects, but sweet potato storage protein is protein, so it will be decomposed into amino acids after eating, and it is impossible to have efficacy.
Although it has been confirmed that sweet potatoes fight cancer, it is indeed a nutritious food.
Note 1: Internet article "Eating More Sweet Potato Can Preven"t Cancer
Note 2: "Is Sweet Potato an Anticancer Food?" October 2017 Bonnie Singleton Are Sweet Potatoes an Anti-Cancer Food?
Note 3: In November 2015, Michael. Michael Greger, Sweet Potato Proteins vs. Cancer
Note 4: Michael. Craig's criticism:
1. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/news/dr-michael-greger-what-do-we-make-him
2. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-not-to-die-review
Three. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/death-as-a-foodborne-illness-curable-by-veganism/
Note 5: "The amazing anti-cancer properties of sweet potatoes" Cyrus. Cyrus Khambatta) The Shocking Anti-Cancer Effect of Sweet Potatoes
Note 6: Reference articles on the nutritional value of sweet potatoes:
2000: Nutriitive evaluation on chemical components of leaves, stalks and stems of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas poir)
2005: Beta-carotene-rich orange-fleshed sweet potato improves the vitamin A status of primary school children assessed with the modified-relative-dose-response test
2007: Sweet Potato: A Review of its Past, Present, and Future Role in Human Nutrition
2007: Antioxidant activities, phenolic and β-carotene contents of sweet potato genotypes with varying flesh colours
2010: Composition and physicochemical properties of dietary fiber extracted from residues of 10 varieties of sweet potato by a sieving method
2014: Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam)--a valuable medicinal food: a review
◎ This article is excerpted from / "Pseudoscience on the Dining Table: Professor of the University of California School of Medicine Debunks Hundreds of Health Myths and Deep-rooted Medical Myths" by Lin Qingshun ◎ Image source/Provided by Dazhi Image/shutterstock
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