I ran across an article written by Ana Sandoiu about a great benefit of sweet potato wastewater. Most of us use those sweet, creamy sweet potatoes in all those great and tasty holiday pies and treats. They are healthy and nutritious but in addition to this, there is new research that suggests even the cooking water from these sweet potatoes might help with digestion and weight loss.
This exceptionally nutritious vegetable is high in carotenoids and a great source of vitamin, which is great for eye health. There are antioxidants and anti-aging properties in them and they have also been linked to cancer prevention.
Sweet potatoes are also rich in a wide range of B vitamins, including B-1, or thiamine, B-2 and B-3, which are riboflavin and niacin. B-5 and B-6 are also found in sweet potatoes and according to the National Institutes of Health, B vitamins help our body to process food into energy, as well as form red blood cells.
New research published in the journal Heliyon, suggests the starchy water left over after cooking this vegetable may have slimming effects and help with digestion. Imagine, enjoying that sweet fruit and its leftover water while losing weight!! Dr. Koji Ishiguro and a team of researchers from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization in Japan found the wastewater from these potatoes could be used on an industrial scale.
The International Potato Center states that sweet potatoes are one of the world’s most important food crops, with 105 million metric tons being produced every year around the world and 95% of the crops being grown in developing countries. These potatoes are suitable for processing due to their high starch content and are currently used to produce flour, noodles, bread, candy, pectin, liquors, and other starch and starch-based industrial products. About 15% of sweet potato is used to produce starch-derived products as well as processed foods and distilled spirits. Hence, there is a large amount of wastewater that contains organic residue and is usually discarded in rivers and oceans, which could cause a serious environmental problem.
The wastewater also contains proteins, and Dr. Ishiguro and team decided to investigate its effects on digestion in mice. They hypothesized that the huge volumes of wastewater could affect body weight, fat tissue, and other factors. Finding alternative uses for the wastewater could be good for the environment.
They discovered that the wastewater contains protein that has slimming effects in mice. Three groups of mice were fed high-fat diets. One group was given the sweet potato peptide protein (SPP) in a high concentration and another group in a low concentration. Researchers weighed the mice and took a series of measurements after 28 days. The liver mass and fatty tissue, fat cholesterol levels, and triglyceride levels were examined and measured. Levels of leptin and adiponectin, which play a key role in obesity and metabolic syndrome, were also measured. The mice that were fed higher levels of SPP had significantly lower body weight and liver mass, as well as lower cholesterol levels and triglycerides. Higher levels of metabolic hormones leptin and adiponectin were noted.
These results suggest that SPP suppresses the appetite and controls lipid metabolism in mice that show the results are very promising. They hope that SPP is used for the functional food material in the future.
Dr. Fredda Branyon