The potential of orange-fleshed sweet potato to alleviate vitamin A
deficiency is reflected by the results of a randomized controlled trial
which showed that feeding 125 g of boiled and mashed orangefleshed
sweet potato (cultivar Resisto, providing 1031 μg RAE) to
South African primary school children for 53 school days improved
vitamin A status in terms of liver stores, compared to the control
group that consumed a white-fleshed cultivar (Van Jaarsveld et al.,
2005). These results are supported by two studies that were done in
Bangladesh, which showed that consumption of β-carotene rich sweet
potato increased total body vitamin A stores in men (Haskell et al.,
2004) and serum retinol concentrations, but not total vitamin A stores,
in women (Jamil et al., 2012).