This rather inexpensive vegetable is often overlooked when purchasing produce unless specifically called for in a recipe. However, it should be eaten raw for better preservation and utilization of its many nutrients instead of only being used for its unique flavor in recipes calling for it to be cooked. Cooking both through baking or boiling strips it of its vitamins and can leach minerals out into water that is often tossed aside.
Potassium and Vitamin C help your body stay healthy when they are consumed daily. Without them, your body can’t fight infection as easily or stay as active as it would otherwise. Other nutrients include folic acid, which is needed in much greater amounts by pregnant women to prevent birth defects.
Here are 16 good reasons that you should eat celery every day.
You might just find that your health is slowly but steadily improving after increasing your intake of this vegetable. Another thing about celery is that you can eat the entire stalk and also the leaves.
They are an often welcome addition to salads and also as a seasoning in stews and soups, or as a garnish over everything from meat dishes to hot steaming bowls of noodles.
Adding it as a garnish after finally cutting the leaves can help you gain the benefits you receive when you eat celery every day.
1. Bile Acid Production
An increased amount of bile acid has been shown by researchers to reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol found in the blood. Two regular-sized stalks or three smaller ones are enough to help accomplish this reduction. The phthalides found in celery are responsible for the increased production of bile.
2. Cancer-Fighting Properties
Phthalides also help fight cancer cells in the body by detoxifying and neutralizing them. These compounds are especially helpful in attacking cancer cells in the ovaries. Celery also contains other cancer-fighting compounds, namely polyacetylenes, and luteolin, a flavonoid.
3. Anti-Inflammatory Side Effects
Celery’s high levels of luteolin act as anti-inflammatories throughout the entire body, benefiting muscles, and organs, and even helping prevent bladder infections. When your bladder and kidney system are no longer inflamed and swollen, kidney stones are much easier to pass through before they get a chance to grow and cause painful, and often costly, problems. This anti-inflammatory property extends to joints, also, keeping the symptoms of arthritis and gout to a minimum.
4. Lowering Blood Pressure
The potassium in celery is excellent as a natural, and not chemically produced, source. This aids in reducing blood pressure naturally in individuals with higher-than-normal blood pressure.
5. Helps with Any Diet or Weight Loss Plan
Being a natural source of dietary fiber, and also being full of water, this vegetable is perfect for filling you up and keeping you full longer. It also works as a natural laxative, but in a very general way. The high water content works with the high fiber content to help your body experience less constipation.
6. Menstrual and Menopausal Symptoms are Alleviated
Abdominal pain and headache are common sign effects of menstruation, and so is bloating and that general feeling of discomfort that many women experience during their monthly cycles. During both menstruation and menopause, many women experience hot flashes. Celery has more than 50 different chemical compounds that help with reducing or eliminating these problems.
7. Age-Related Problems are Reduced
High levels of vitamins A, C, and E help reduce the signs of aging in the skin, internal organs, and even the eyes. Macular degeneration has been shown to decrease when vitamin A is increased.
8. Reproductive Health and Interest get a Boost from Celery’s Components
Two hormones that occur naturally in celery help both men and women with their reproductive health and drives. Androstenol and androstenone are found in celery in adequate amounts and have been shown to keep a person’s libido strong, even as we age. These are said to be released by chewing and not just by consuming, celery.
9. Celery Beats Stress
Celery is full of magnesium. This mineral helps calm people by helping their bodies cope with stress. Magnesium also helps regulate sleep patterns, helping people further de-stress with a good night’s sleep.
10. Helps Regulate Acidity in the Body
Celery helps keep the body less acidic, which experts tout as being a factor in combating cancer cells trying to get a foothold in the body.
11. Helps Prevents Dehydration
Celery contains essential salts that are beneficial to health. Even in winter, we sweat, and this produces a loss of electrolytes, which can help create feelings of fatigue. The salts in celery are different from sodium chloride and are not as easily replenished by regular table salt.
Why Dehydration Makes You Sick, Fatty, and Leads to Death?
12. The Seeds can Help with Chronic Pain
Adding the seeds to salads and consuming them raw can help immensely with pain due to muscle aches and joint pain. Post-surgical patients might want to try this and the rest of the celery stalk, as well, in an effort to deal with inflammation and pain.
13. Aids in Cleansing the Teeth and Gums
Celery can help clean your teeth when you’ve been rushed and forgotten to brush. It also works to freshen your breath, as well, by killing excess bacteria through its antibacterial properties.
14. Celery Boosts Memory
Eating celery boosts the amount of luteolin in your system, and another side effect of this is a reduction of any swelling in the hippocampus, leading to improved memory.
15. Decreased Number of Colds in winter
Many feel an overall boost in health, especially during the flu and cold season, and most experience fewer colds. This may be because of the high levels of vitamin C found in celery, as well as the amount of water that helps keep them from becoming dehydrated.
16. Flushing Out Toxins is aided by Celery
The diuretic properties of celery help flush out toxins, which can cause food cravings. This property of celery can also help decrease the number of bladder infections experienced.
These are all very good reasons to add celery to your diet, especially in salads and garnishes. Cooking is known to kill or destroy many of the beneficial properties listed above, although simple steaming can preserve up to 99 percent of these vital nutrients. Celery is a very versatile vegetable and it’s quite easy to introduce it into your and your family’s diet. It’s important to eat celery every day, even if only a stalk or two.
Regarding preparation, cutting celery and then storing it, even in the refrigerator, is known to destroy some of the nutrients just as cooking can. It’s always best to cut celery just before serving, in order to reap as many of the benefits as possible.
