We promise. We’re not making this one up.
In what at first seems like a bit of a bizarre science experiment, scientists have recently found a way to improve the health benefits of the humble sweet potato.
The experiment basically involves submerging the particular sweet potato in question in a salt solution and passing electrical current through it, which in turn apparently forces the sweet potato to produce more antioxidants.
If you’re wondering why this is important and scratching your head as to why this is beneficial, antioxidants are basically molecules that are used within substances to inhibit oxygen reactions, and are believed to be particularly useful in the body for preventing things such as heart disease, cancer and overall improving the nutritional value of the foods we consume.
"Our discovery offers a way to further increase the sweet potato's role in relieving hunger and improving nutrition and health," said study leader Dr Kazunori Hironaka, from the University of the Ryukyus in Japan.
It’s believed the new research could be extremely beneficial for relieving hunger in developing countries, particularly as the sweet potato is a popular crop and source of nutrition. The procedure for creating super sweet potatoes is also apparently extremely cheap to perform, requiring an extremely low level electrical current and a form of salt solution.
So there you have it, super-charged potatoes. What's next, electrical carrots? Sub-atomic cabbages?
