This low-calorie, fat-free food is perfect for people looking to slim down. With a regular dose of celery in your diet, you can overcome hunger pangs, and potentially reach your weight loss goals a lot faster. However, there’s more to celery than most people think.
Part of the same family as parsley and carrots, this marshland food might not be as thrilling as other superfoods, like cinnamon and blueberries. But, that doesn’t make it any less valuable.
Today, we’re going to introduce you to the most critical celery benefits for men and women.
What is celery? The nutritional profile
Celery is a nutritional and crunchy way to avoid some of the more serious side effects of snacking.
One of the things that makes celery so appealing to people on a diet is its unique nutritional profile. Celery stalks are 95% water. This helps your crunchy green sticks to stand out as a potential negative calorie food.
In other words, you’ll burn more calories chewing it than you consume.
Although this isn’t the case for many people, celery does have some genuine benefits to explore. For instance, celery is packed full of vitamins and minerals.
A single stalk gives you around 25% of your vitamin K needs and 5% of your requirements for vitamin A and folate too.
Celery is a brilliant source of antioxidants and critical compounds for fighting disease. It’s also high in electrolytes, which help to improve hydration, maintain healthy blood pressure, repair tissue damage, and more.
The best benefits of celery
Celery is an impressive food, managing to combine excellent hydration with various fantastic solutions for fighting disease and illness. The more scientists research this superfood, the more they discover amazing things, such as:
1. Fighting cancer
The celery benefits for men and women today are much more significant than you might think. As mentioned above, celery is rich in antioxidants, which remove cancer-promoting free radicals from your cells.
Celery extract contains two major anti-cancer compounds: Luteolin and apigenin.
Apigenin destroys the free radicals in your body and can help to eliminate cancer cells. Additionally, research indicates that Luteolin may be capable of shrinking tumors – although further research into human subjects is essential.
Eating just two stalks of celery per week could potentially reduce your risk of lung cancer by up to 60%.
2. Reduces inflammation
Another benefit of celery, aside from reducing your risk of cancer, is that it can reduce the inflammation that’s commonly associated with chronic disease. Various preparations of celery and celery juice recipe options are perfect for inflammation treatment.
Some research indicates that celery may have a similar impact as ibuprofen, aspirin, and naproxen on treating symptoms of arthritis. It can also have a positive impact on reducing the stomach damage that happens with regular exposure to NSAIDs.
Because inflammation is a common component of issues like Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis, celery could be an ideal preventative treatment for people with risks of those diseases.
3. It may reduce heart disease risk
Eating this crunchy snack could also protect your heart by helping you to avoid common heart disease biomarkers. Studies in rats found that when the creatures received regular celery extract for 60 days, they saw a massive reduction in their blood lipids and bad cholesterol.
Celery might also have the power to reduce blood pressure, despite being relatively high in sodium. In China, it’s common to use a celery juice recipe mixed with honey to counteract bad blood pressure.
Elsewhere, in South Africa, natives use a celery juice recipe with vinegar to support pregnant women with blood pressure issues.
4. It may support better fertility
If you’re looking specifically at celery benefits for men, then look no further. A review of 16 studies into the benefits of celery in 2017 found some interesting results.
Eating regular doses of celery or drinking celery juice can protect you from the substance that reduces your sperm count.
Although research into the benefits of celery for fertility are ongoing, a similar review in 2015 found that celery leaf extract is great for boosting sperm count. The impact on celery on sexual organs could come from the inhibitive effects that the product has against things like free radicals.
However, it’s difficult to know how much celery you need to eat or drink to get the best results.
5. It supports digestive and gut health
When people look at the impact that celery might have on their stomach, they often focus on the lack of carbs in celery, or how great it is for weight loss. While a good celery juice recipe can help you to shed some extra weight, there are other benefits to consider too.
For example, celery is packed full of insoluble fiber, which increases satiety and weight loss opportunities. The same soluble fiber also promotes bathroom regularity, reducing constipation and helping to clear the intestines.
One study from 2010 found that celery may even be beneficial for treating stomach ulcers and preventing gastric damage too!
Is a celery juice recipe better than eating celery?
If you’re not a massive fan of crunching your way through many celery sticks, you might prefer to take another, juicier route. Celery juice is one of the biggest elements of the green juicing craze that continues to transform the way that we think about health and nutrition.
Although you can benefit from celery in virtually any form, it’s worth noting that celery juice comes without the extra plant fiber. This means that it might not help as much with your bowel, but it does come with a bunch of extra nutrients.
- Calcium: 8% of DV
- Protein: 2 grams
- Calories: 8% of DV
- Sodium: 9% of DV
- Potassium: 14% of DV
- Magnesium: 7% of DV
- Vitamin K: 74% of DV
- Vitamin C: 16% of DV
- Vitamin A: 7% of DV
Celery juice is excellent for hydration, thanks to its high dose of water and electrolytes, plus it’s low on sugar. Anti-inflammatory properties in celery’s phytonutrients can reduce pain, help you to overcome oxidative stress, and even boost skin health.
Of course, like any juice trend, it’s essential to approach celery juicing from the right angle. There’s very little proof to suggest that any celery juice recipe will automatically remove all dangerous toxins in your body or transform your weight loss routine.
Any available research into the impact of a celery juice cleanse on things like acne, weight, and diabetes are extremely limited.
Adding more celery into your diet
Including celery into your diet will introduce you to a vast number of fantastic health benefits. However, it’s important not to start using this food in everything without some caution.
Celery does have its downsides. It’s on the EQG’s list of most pesticide-contaminated products; this means it’s worth buying organically if you want to avoid extra ingredients.
Additionally, the fiber in celery is insoluble, which means that though it helps move things through your intestines, too much could cause stomach pain and diarrhea.
In rare circumstances, you may even end up having an allergy to celery. Most celery allergies are to the root, with symptoms like swelling and itching. Start very slowly if you’re going to start eating celery – just to be safe.
Once you’ve determined that celery is 100% safe for you, you can try a wide variety of ways to add more of this ingredient to your diet.
Aside from exploring the juicing trend that we mentioned above, you can also look into:
- Celery snacks with food like peanut butter and cinnamon.
- Dicing and chopping celery to use it in warm soups and wraps.
- Adding celery to smoothies (it works well alongside a lot of fruits).
- Adding celery into your salads and sandwiches.
- Taking celery root extract if you hate the flavor of celery.
Enjoy the benefits of celery
Compared to all of the weird and wonderful superfoods available in the health and nutrition market today, celery might not seem like the most fun. However, it’s one of the most impressive products you can add to your regular diet.
A dose of celery in your routine, whether in the form of a juice or a crunchy snack, could help you to fight back against a range of illnesses and ailments. Plus, the versatility of this plant means that it’s easy to add to a variety of meals and treats – even if you’re not too fond of the flavor.
Discover the benefits of celery today.
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