Bioscience Evidence 2025, Vol.15, No.6, 260-269 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/be 265 in chronic disease management, nutritional improvement and weight control has been increasingly discussed, especially among people with diabetes, obesity and malnutrition (Akomolafe et al., 2025). 6.2 Intervention measures Many studies have used sweet potatoes or sweet potato products as dietary interventions. There was a randomized controlled trial in which overweight white-collar workers replaced two meals a day with a white-skinned sweet potato (WSP) formula for eight weeks. In another study, teenagers ate sweet potato leaves as vegetables twice a week for ten days to improve anemia. Furthermore, some animal experiments and population studies on diabetes have also used sweet potato extract or sweet potato dietary fiber for intervention (Arisanti et al., 2023). 6.3 Observed health outcomes After eight weeks of intervention with white-skinned sweet potatoes, the participants' weight, body fat, BMI and blood glucose (HbA1c) all decreased significantly. The average weight loss was approximately 5%, and HbA1c decreased by about 3.5%, with no adverse reactions. In the research on improving anemia, after teenagers ate sweet potato leaves for ten days, the average increase in hemoglobin was 1.56 g/dL, and the effect was significantly better than that of the control group. In studies related to diabetes, sweet potatoes or their extracts can lead to better blood sugar control in patients, with an average decrease of 0.3% in HbA1c, and there are no serious side effects (Akomolafe et al., 2025). Animal experiments have also found that dietary fiber from sweet potatoes can improve blood sugar, blood lipid, liver and kidney functions, and also regulate intestinal flora (Hu et al., 2025). A systematic review also pointed out that eating sweet potatoes helps improve multiple health indicators such as vitamin A status, blood pressure, iron absorption, liver function and constipation (Qin et al., 2022). 6.4 Interpretation of results From these studies, it can be seen that sweet potatoes and sweet potato leaves, as dietary interventions, can bring about significant health improvements in different populations. It is particularly outstanding in aspects such as weight control, blood glucose regulation, anemia improvement and intestinal function enhancement (Qin et al., 2022). Most of these improvements come from the rich dietary fiber, polyphenols, carotenoids and minerals in sweet potatoes. Although some studies have small sample sizes and some are animal experiments, the overall trend indicates that sweet potatoes play a positive role in chronic disease management and nutritional improvement. More large-scale and long-term human trials are still needed in the future to further verify these effects (Akomolafe et al., 2025). 7 Challenges, Knowledge Gaps and Future Directions of sweet potato Nutrition and Health Benefits Research 7.1 More human clinical trials are urgently needed At present, most of the research on the health benefits of sweet potatoes comes from in vitro experiments, animal experiments, or smaller-scale and short-duration human intervention studies. Although systematic reviews have pointed out that eating sweet potatoes may improve indicators such as vitamin A status, blood glucose, blood pressure and iron absorption, these results are not sufficient to establish a clear causal relationship because the number of high-quality, long-term, randomized controlled human trials is very small. In the future, larger-scale, more center and longer-duration clinical studies will be needed to truly confirm the role of sweet potatoes and their active components in chronic disease management (Laveriano-Santos et al., 2022). 7.2 The interaction effect of genotype × environment × processing method The nutritional components of sweet potatoes can be influenced by many factors, including the variety itself, the growing environment and the cooking method. The contents of β -carotene, anthocyanin and minerals vary greatly among different varieties (De Andrade et al., 2025). Environmental conditions, such as soil, rainfall and climate, can also affect the nutrient accumulation and quality of sweet potatoes (Rosero et al., 2020; Merga et al., 2025). Cooking methods (steaming, boiling, roasting, frying) also result in different nutrient retention rates. At present, the mutual influence among these three has not been studied deeply enough, and it is necessary to further explore the performance of different varieties under different environments and processing methods (Alam et al., 2024; Liao et al., 2025; Merga et al., 2025).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ4ODYzNA==