9 Surprising Reasons Why You Should Eat More Celery
Although some people think the taste of celery is a little strange, including celery in your diet can help improve your health and prevent numerous complications. So eat more celery!
We should all eat more celery. This vegetable has a refreshing taste and so many nutritional benefits that it would be great to include in your daily diet.
The good news is that celery can be eaten several different ways. You can make it in salads, soups, juices, creams…It’s tasty and very filling.
Curiously enough, in ancient times this vegetable was often used as a medicinal ingredient to treat several diseases such as problems with the liver, heart conditions, digestive diseases, and others.
Obviously it can’t solve your aches and pains by itself, but it can be great for your general health. It’s simply one of the best foods you can include in your meals.
Below, we are going to give you 9 reasons why you should eat more celery. If you do, you may start noticing improvements in your health!
1. Celery is very low in calories and high in nutrients
If you want to lose weight, celery needs to be a part of your diet. This is one of the lowest calorie vegetables you can find.
- It’s very high in water and minerals, like calcium, sodium, and magnesium.
- It has a lot of vitamins, including vitamins A, C, E, D, B6, B12 and vitamin K.
- You also can’t forget its essential oils, fiber and antioxidants.
Thanks to all of these components, celery makes a great heart protector, and diuretic.
2. You should eat more celery to reduce inflammation
You might be experiencing pain in your joints. Arthritis, or simply over-straining your muscles, brings about inflammation that can cause a lot of discomfort.
Celery is one of the best anti-inflammatory foods you can eat.
- The reason celery helps reduce inflammation and relax tissues is because of polyacetylene. This element helps eliminate toxins and treats processes like rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, gout, asthma, and bronchitis.
3. Celery helps to calm you down
Among all those important minerals hidden in celery, you’ll find magnesium. This mineral, along with its essential oils, helps relax the nervous system and will help you get more restful sleep.
So how about making a nice celery soup for dinner?
Read more: 8 Signs of Magnesium Deficiency
4. Great alkaline food
Celery has alkalizing nutrients that are released when squeezed. It’s important to remember that a lot of these properties are lost during cooking.
So in order to get the most out of celery’s alkalizing effects, have it raw or juiced.
5. It improves digestion.
One good way of easing making your digestion more smooth and preventing constipation is to prepare a juice from celery and cabbage.
Their minerals, along with various acids and phytonutrients, are wonderful digestive tonics that are capable of also alleviating intestinal gas.
6. It’s good for your vision
Yet another reason as to why you should eat celery is because it stands out as a fabulous food for your vision.
This is because deep inside it, you’ll find a magic vitamin: Vitamin A. Simply eat one stalk of celery a day to get 5% of your daily requirement of this vitamin.
Read more: 6 Vitamins You Must Include in Your Diet
7. Celery helps reduce bad cholesterol
Celery helps to reduce “bad”, or LDL, cholesterol. It does this through a special component, a phytochemical known as 3-N-butylphthalide.
It’s easily recognizable because it happens to be the component that gives celery its characteristic smell. So eat it whenever you can. It’s worth it!
8. Lowers blood pressure
If you have been diagnosed with hypertension and you don’t know how to stabilize it, be careful with your diet. Celery is an effective hypotensor, which is again due to the same element that helps lower cholesterol: 3-N-butylphthalide.
Nutritionists recommend eating two stalks of celery a day to get benefits from it.
9. Celery is a good anti-carcinogen
We all know that to this day, there is nothing around that can prevent the development of cancer. But you can reduce your risk by eating a more healthy diet.
Celery contains two types of very special flavonoids: apigenin and luteolin.
These two antioxidants, according to a piece published in the magazine Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cancer Research, may be effective when it comes to fighting against cancer cells affecting the lungs.
In conclusion, eating more celery is incredibly beneficial.
But this doesn’t mean you should eat a strict diet based solely on a few vegetables, fruits and fiber to lose weight or reduce cholesterol.
The key is to eat intelligently. Don’t forget about your proteins, carbohydrates, or healthy fats like those available in olive oil and nuts.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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- Hedayati N, Bemani Naeini M, Mohammadinejad A, Mohajeri SA. Beneficial effects of celery (Apium graveolens) on metabolic syndrome: A review of the existing evidences. Phytother Res. 2019 Dec;33(12):3040-3053
- Christodoulides S, Dimidi E, Fragkos KC, Farmer AD, Whelan K, Scott SM. Systematic review with meta-analysis: effect of fibre supplementation on chronic idiopathic constipation in adults. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2016 Jul;44(2):103-16.
- Pan X, Yang Z, Yang Z, Zhou S, Zhang H, Zang L. [Effect of apigenin on proliferation and apoptosis of human lung cancer NCI-H460 cells]. Nan Fang Yi Ke Da Xue Xue Bao. 2013 Aug;33(8):1137-40.
