47 replies to this topic

[Forever21]

I always eat Whole Foods "Sweet Potatoes" (orange colored) but recently learned that Okinawan Sweet Potatoes are purple in color and that North American "Sweet Potato" is different from Japanese Sweet Potato.

What is Okinawan Sweet Potato then? Is it the same as Purple Yam? How do you get this in North America?

[Skötkonung]

I always eat Whole Foods "Sweet Potatoes" (orange colored) but recently learned that Okinawan Sweet Potatoes are purple in color and that North American "Sweet Potato" is different from Japanese Sweet Potato.

What is Okinawan Sweet Potato then? Is it the same as Purple Yam? How do you get this in North America?

Read, already been answered.

[Forever21]

Didn't really answer the question.

The link you provided seems to talk more about the Philippine Purple Yam.

Nothing was mentioned whether that's the same as Okinawan Sweet Potatoes.

[Skötkonung]

Didn't really answer the question.

The link you provided seems to talk more about the Philippine Purple Yam.

Nothing was mentioned whether that's the same as Okinawan Sweet Potatoes.

Actually your questions were mostly answered. You should ask for clarification in that thread to avoid redundancy. Also you should avoid intellectual laziness... its a bad habit.

What is Okinawan Sweet Potato then?
Also called the Hawaiian Purple Sweet potato. Not to be confused with the Ube (Philippine yam). The Okinawan sweet potato quickly entered popular Japanese cuisine, where it is used in tempura, mashed and served with a variety of foods, and even integrated into pastries. You may see them called tamai kuru or beni imo in Japan. This is of course included in some of the literature posted to that thread...

How do you get this in North America?
This is discussed in the thread. Shadowhawk provided a list of online retailers. Many people have found it at asian grocery stores.

[Forever21]

So why the hell are the links on that page pointing to Philippine Yam instead of Okinawan Purple Potato?

[Forever21]

Yam (Dioscorea alata) comes in different color, includes Philippine purple yam and other varieties.

Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas) comes in different color. North American sweet potatoes are orange in color and are widely available. But this is Okinawan Sweet Potato. They are expensive and hard to find.

Edited by Forever21, 21 July 2010 - 06:59 AM.

[Forever21]

Yam (Dioscorea alata) comes in different color, includes Philippine purple yam and other varieties.


Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas) comes in different color. North American sweet potatoes are orange in color and are widely available. But this is Okinawan Sweet Potato. They are expensive and hard to find.

Purple-fleshed sweet potatoes, on the other hand, are a good source of anthocyanins and have the highest antioxidant activity among sweet potato varieties. In one study, the antioxidant activity in purple sweet potato was 3.2 times higher than that of a blueberry variety!
Terahara N, Konczak-Islam I, Nakatani M, et al. Anthocyanins in callus induced from purple storage root of Ipomoea batatas L. Phytochemistry 2000 Aug;54(8):919-22 2000. PMID:13870.

Edited by Forever21, 21 July 2010 - 11:56 AM.

[Forever21]

Alright, I looked everywhere in Vancouver. All grocery stores, Whole Foods, Asian markets and nothing. Purple Sweet Potatoes (Okinawan) are not available in Vancouver, Canada.

Can you guys please help me? Please check in your city if this is available.

I'll check in Los Angeles / New York City / Austin but after the summer.

Edited by Forever21, 21 July 2010 - 08:56 PM.

[shadowhawk]

http://www.okinawa-d...0119_times.html

More sweet potato, please, I want to live longer...
2006-01-19
Haydn Shaughnessy
The oriental recipe for slowing ageing

The world of the long-lived is populated by porkies -- that’s lies, not your Melton Mowbrays. It seems that old people have been leading scientists a merry dance when it comes to telling their real age.

In Vilcabamba, in Ecuador, and in the Hunza region of Kashmir, ionised oxygen in the air, milky water, even apricot stones, have been cited as dubious explanations for staying fit 50 years beyond the average Western life-span. It’s hard to shake off the idea that, somewhere, there is an elixir of youth -- you can even buy exotic foods such as Hunza apricots in UK health food shops.

"It just isn’t true or possible," says Bradley Willcox, who has conducted research into oriental eating patterns and ageing, and is co-author of two bestsellers on the diet and lifestyle of elderly people in Okinawa. In this corner of Japan, a new truth is emerging about what keeps you going longer and in better shape.

The Japanese experience of ageing is unique. Okinawa officially has the world’s highest number of people aged over 100, with three times the global average per 100,000 of population. "There were only 20 centenarians in Okinawa in 1976," Willcox says. "Now there are more than 800 and, until the age of 95, only a third of those show any real signs of mental degradation."

The reasons for this are only just emerging. "They have a remarkably high consumption of sweet potato that gives them high levels of a particular flavonoid," Willcox says. "That and a high soy intake." The flavonoids in sweet potato and traditional soy foods such as tempeh stimulate what Willcox calls "the sirtuin pathway", a way of producing a protein that puts the body into preservation mode rather than the usual reproductive mode.

Some Western scientists, however, are sceptical of the effect of nutrition on age. Aubrey de Gray, a specialist on ageing at Cambridge University, argues: "I don’t think that any of the more exotic supplements becoming fashionable will add more than a couple of years (if anything) to life-span and I’m also pessimistic about caloric restriction (eating substantially less for extending life). Living and eating the way your mother told you to is pretty much all there is right now."

This may sound surprising to those who believe that eating to Western conventions and wisdom is a barrier to health. Even in Ecuador and Kashmir, where they may not reach extreme old age they reach old age in great shape. None as impressively as Okinawans, though, whose older citizens have an 80 per cent lower chance of heart disease, an extremely low risk of hormone-dependent cancers such as breast and prostate cancer, and about 60 per cent fewer hip fractures than Westerners.

Dr David Wikenheiser, a Canadian expert on ageing, pitches the attainable healthy age for us at about 80 years. "Ageing is accelerated by chemical, electrical, and emotional insults to our bodies in general, and specifically our genetic code," he says. "We’re on the verge of a new era of optimal ageing because people are starting to believe that their lifestyle choices affect their health."

Okinawans look after their health by eating green vegetables, oily fish, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and soy. The sweet potato is the surprise. Bradley Willcox says that what is new is our understanding of the hormesis effect of sweet potatoes and soy products: the sweet potato grows in conditions of stress and seems to communicate that stress to people who eat it, encouraging their bodies to anticipate famine or scarcity.

The reason that a third of Okinawan centenarians are physiologically nearer to 70 years is that their bodies have switched from a preoccupation with reproduction to a requirement to preserve, stimulated by the illusion of scarcity. So the Okinawa diet is, in essence, the opposite of an aphrodisiac. It’s not sexy, but it works.
www.okinawa-diet.com

[shadowhawk]

Place to buy
http://www.mericlone...cuttingsforsale

[Forever21]

Hello Okinawa.

[adamh]

Place to buy
http://www.mericlone...cuttingsforsale

All I see there are plants for sale. You have to grow your own. Do they sell the potato itself and how much is it? It's $3 a lb plus freight from the other link. You have to shell out over $100 to get any.

[shadowhawk]

Place to buy
http://www.mericlone...cuttingsforsale

All I see there are plants for sale. You have to grow your own. Do they sell the potato itself and how much is it? It's $3 a lb plus freight from the other link. You have to shell out over $100 to get any.

Sources where you can buy Potatos
Alembic International
808-775-1478
PO Box 1941
Honokaa, HI 96727
http://www.alembicinternational.org/

Crown Pacific International
808-935-1550
355 Luakaha Street
Hilo, HI 96720

Diversified Ag
808-935-4423
PO Box 10927
Bakersfield, CA 93389

Hilo Products
808-935-1106
41 Makaala St.
Hilo, HI 96720

Hawaii Enterprises
808-964-5509
PO Box 11040
Hilo, HI 96721

Western Fresh Marketing
808-982-6345
PO Box 329
Madera, CA 93639

[Sillewater]

Hello Okinawa.

Where'd you get them??

[Forever21]

Hello Okinawa.

Where'd you get them??

I looked everywhere. Asian & specialty stores don't carry this. WholeFoods, Urban Fare, Choices, Capers, they all don't carry this. Worse, I've seen stores that actually carry the item "Japanese Sweet Potato" (says so in the box) but they're just purple yams. Little Asian stores are terrible at this. When you say "purple sweet potato" they immediately point you to purple yam. (Perhaps because Filipinos buy these a lot) It feels like no one in this city knows what "Okinawan Sweet Potatoes" are.

So where did I get this? Outside Vancouver. I asked my mom to look around Langley, Surrey, White Rock, Delta, Cloverdale while I took care of all of Richmond, Burnaby, New West, Vancouver, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Downtown. She found it ironically enough at T&T Guildford. The only store that carries it. I know because all the other T&T don't carry it. (Chinatown, Surrey Central, Metrotown) I called T&T Coquitlam, First Ave, Yaohan Centre, Park Royal, Richmond Store. They said they don't carry it. Maybe just out of stock or the persons I talked to don't know what Okinawan Sweet Potatoes are.

So you might want to try those in italics. To be sure, get it from T&T Guildford.

Edited by Forever21, 23 July 2010 - 10:05 AM.

[Forever21]

It is such a joy to have these Okinawan Sweet Potatoes on my plate.

See 3:06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoKLW51Byrg

[Sillewater]

Thanks for all you hard work. I'm heading out to get some now.

[adamh]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't a purple yam the same as a purple sweet potato? might be a different species but maybe not.

Thanks, shadowhawk, for the list of suppliers. The first one is the one I referred to which it costs you over $100 for a minimum order just estimating freight which will be steep. I'm not sure I could use up 30 lb before they went bad. The others you have to call on the phone. Do you have any first hand info on dealing with any of them? I will have to check out the asian grocers in my area one after another in hopes of finding them.

[Forever21]

Different species. Also looks and tastes different.

If you look closely on my dinner plate above, you'll notice that one of my potatoes look different.

[Forever21]

Learned a few things today.




Interestingly, the antioxidant activity in sweet potato skin, regardless of its color, is almost three times higher than in the rest of the tissue.


If you purchase organically grown sweet potatoes, you can eat the entire tuber, flesh and skin. Yet, if you buy conventionally grown ones, you should peel them before eating since sometimes the skin is treated with dye or wax; if preparing the sweet potato whole, just peel it after cooki


Research has shown some nutritional advantages to roasting over boiling when it comes to sweet potatoes, so if you are deliberating over these two cooking methods, we recommend that you choose roasting. At the same time, however, when it comes to a potentially problematic substance like phytic acid (phytic acid can sometimes block absorption of desirable nutrients like zinc and iron), a wet-heat cooking method might be helpful. Because steaming is a wet-heat method that avoids submersing the food in water and risking excessive leeching of water-soluble nutrients, we recommend steaming over boiling when using wet heats (and we always stick with steaming in our own sweet potato recipes).



http://www.whfoods.c...odspice&dbid=64

[pmcglothin]

Place to buy
http://www.mericlone...cuttingsforsale

[pmcglothin]

Thank you for posting this. However, it is a resource for those who want to grow their own. That is not possible in colder climates. Anyone find a place to buy around NYC?

Thanks,

Paul

[adamh]

I finally found them in an oriental market near here and they were cheaper than $3 a pound. But when I went back they were going out of business and no longer carried them. I still think purple sweet potato and purple yam are the same thing.

[Julia36]

It's essential they are purple and just called Okinawans NOT Okinawa sweet potatoes as I see it.

The purple is what gives life extension (and by definition better health, and indigenous peoples eat it 3 X a day.

Got to be a massive business opportunity here??? Climate can be man made with covers etc.

http://scholar.googl...l=en&as_sdt=0,5

Edited by Innocent, 09 December 2013 - 12:12 PM.

[Chupo]

The purple is what gives life extension (and by definition better health, and indigenous peoples eat it 3 X a day.

The purple certainly isn't hurting but the people of Yuzuri Hara also experience increased longevity and their diet is based on ordinary potatoes rather than rice.

http://youtu.be/PefdHNnDuv4

Edited by Chupo, 10 December 2013 - 09:17 PM.

[Peter14]

Purple sweet potatoes are found in most of the Korean supermarkets in Flushing/Bayside area of Queens. I use to buy them. Sometimes they are called Asian Sweet Potatoes. Ask for the purple ones. If you want to take a trip to Queens, you can usually find them in H-Mart. More expensive then regular sweet potatoes, but I am sure they are cheeper than places such as Whole Foods. You can also find other interesting produce and products that you won't find in typical American supermarkets.
BTW 40 years ago I was stationed in the Air Force on Okinawa, and don't remember ever seeing those. Although I wasn't looking for produce.

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[Peter14]

I originally tried to send my NYC Okinanwan Sweet Potatoes directly to pmcglothin but my email was BLOCKED. I guess if one has a book out, one things of oneself as a celebrity. Although I have emailed authors of even best selling books and have gotten replies. I have no scientific proof of this, but I would speculate that elitism is not conducive to longevity.

[Chupo]

I originally tried to send my NYC Okinanwan Sweet Potatoes directly to pmcglothin but my email was BLOCKED. I guess if one has a book out, one things of oneself as a celebrity. Although I have emailed authors of even best selling books and have gotten replies. I have no scientific proof of this, but I would speculate that elitism is not conducive to longevity.

That's quite an assumption! He probably just chose not to accept personal messages via this forum. It's a nice gesture offering to send them but I don't think getting all worked up over such a trivial thing as his forum preferences is good for longevity either. He does have a facebook page where he allows messages from even non-friends.

[Peter14]

I originally tried to send my NYC Okinanwan Sweet Potatoes directly to pmcglothin but my email was BLOCKED. I guess if one has a book out, one things of oneself as a celebrity. Although I have emailed authors of even best selling books and have gotten replies. I have no scientific proof of this, but I would speculate that elitism is not conducive to longevity.

That's quite an assumption! He probably just chose not to accept personal messages via this forum. It's a nice gesture offering to send them but I don't think getting all worked up over such a trivial thing as his forum preferences is good for longevity either. He does have a facebook page where he allows messages from even non-friends.

Jumping to conclusions is part of my exercise program. Yes, I do have anger issues which would put me in an early grave, if I wasn't pretty old already.

[resveratrol_guy]

Sorry to awaken this old thread, but after having read so many reports of the association between purple sweet potatoes and Okinawans, I decided to try some myself starting a few months ago. I've managed to eat 2 different species, one solid violet inside and the other marbled with purple and white. My first observation is that they're not actually sweet, whereas the orange ones tend to be (perhaps because they were selectively bred to satisfy SAD diet requirements). (Orange is very common here in the US. Purple is pretty much confined to Asian specialty stores and the island of Molokai, where they were presumably brought by Japanese immigrants. Seedlings are available on eBay.)

 

More to the point, many times now I've noticed that my appetite shuts down midway through a 300-calorie purple sweet potato. I find this odd, considering that I can down a 420-calorie 88% dark chocolate bar without a second thought, then have another straight away and get halfway through before I start to lose interest. Or I can eat 400 calories worth of butter, straight up, with almost the same ease. This is backwards! Carbs are supposed to be high-reward foods compared to saturated fat and monofat. As I type this, I'm looking at the remaining fraction of tonight's violet potato, wondering if I can finish it. I don't like to waste food, and at present I'm only eating every other day, so I'm hoping to finish it. But it seems rather like a chore.

 

I understand that there may be some beneficial effects on gut bacteria on account of the long-chain "resistant" starches (thanks, Logic), but this shutdown occurs in 10 minutes or so, long before they would be relevant, I think. The closest comparison I can offer is bitter gourds, which affect apetite through AMPK modulation, if I recall. So that might be one place to look. In any event, I can see how people would grow old eating these! They make hara hachi bu so easy.