You want purple fries with that?

摘要

Purple french fries and red hash browns could be on restaurant menus tomorrow, depending on research being conducted by Charles Brown, USDA-ARS geneticist, today. What's more, they could provide extra health benefits for you. Brown has been researching potatoes with orange, purple and red flesh, noting that the pigments producing these bright colors may also function as antioxidants in the human diet. Antioxidants are thought to help prevent certain types of cancers and blindness, as well as improve cardiovascular health. The October 2001 edition of USDA's Agricultural Research magazine reported that Brown has developed orange-fleshed potatoes with up to four times the antioxidants zeaxanthin and lutein as white potatoes. These orange potatoes andothers with dark pigments have tested well against other foods in the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) test, which is a standard measure for antioxidant capacity. Brown's red- and purple-fleshed potatoes had ORAC scores comparable to brussels sprouts, kale and spinach, for example.