Purple Potatoes Proven to Kill Colon Cancer Cells – Study

Research is showing more and more powerfully and clearly how natural, whole foods and the nutrients they provide are able to prevent, combat and kill cancer cells. Surely the mainstream is going to sit up and take notice soon.

As I posted last week in my Seven Most Alkaline Cancer-Fighting Foods – this isn’t just a case of drawing a dotted line conclusion that healthy foods have good stuff in them so they will be good for your body and thus fight cancer…

No.

This is hard, scientifically proven, researched fact.

In that article I showed you (with the studies) that turmeric, leafy greens, beans, healthy oils, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower and bell pepper all had strong cancer fighting & prevention properties.

And now we can add purple potato to the list.

Purple Potato Proven to Kill Colon Cancer Cells: Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry

In the December 2015 issue of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, researchers from Penn State University found that cooked, purple-fleshed potatoes suppressed the growth of colon cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo.

The exciting thing is, this has opened a great big, gigantic door to finding dozens, if not HUNDREDS of other vegetables that can do the same for other cancers.

Since slow-cycling and therapy-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs) were first hypothesised in 2012, researchers have been trying to find ways to counteract them.

The lead researcher from this study, Prof. Jairam KP Vanamala, explains it like this: “You might want to compare cancer stem cells to roots of the weeds. You may cut the weed, but as long as the roots are still there, the weeds will keep growing back and, likewise, if the cancer stem cells are still present, the cancer can still grow and spread.”

This is a great summary of CSCs…

The research study found that treating colon CSCs with cooked purple potato (PP) extracts both reduced the motility, whilst increasing apoptosis of CSCs. Further experiments showed comparable results in vivo, when mice with colon cancer were fed PP (20 % w/w; the equivalent of a human eating 1 large PP a day).

The researchers showed that PPs contain a range of natural chemicals that work together to provide the CSC fighting properties, including chlorogenic acid, anthocyanins, and resistant starch.

“Our earlier work and other research studies suggest that potatoes, including purple potatoes, contain resistant starch, which serves as a food for the gut bacteria, that the bacteria can covert to beneficial short-chain fatty acids such as butyric acid. The butyric acid regulates immune function in the gut, suppresses chronic inflammation and may also help to cause cancer cells to self-destruct.”

Vanamala also emphasized eating a wide range of vegetables:

“In addition to resistant starch, the same color compounds that give potatoes, as well as other fruits and vegetables, a rainbow of vibrant colors may be effective in suppressing cancer growth, he added.

“When you eat from the rainbow, instead of one compound, you have thousands of compounds, working on different pathways to suppress the growth of cancer stem cells,” said Vanamala. “Because cancer is such a complex disease, a silver bullet approach is just not possible for most cancers.”

From this research purple potatoes can be used in both primary and secondary prevention strategies for cancer, Vanamala suggested.

Primary prevention is aimed at stopping the initial attack of cancer, while secondary prevention refers to helping patients in remission remain cancer-free.

The team hopes to continue to push the awareness of research for cancer prevention as well as cure as so little research funding is currently going into this area.

I couldn’t agree more.

And to get you started, here’s a little Vegan Purple Potato Salad Recipe (from ILoveVegan.com) – featuring, indeed, all of the colors of the rainbow!

Stay energized
Ross

References

Research Paper from the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry
Information on CSCs