There’s a trend on the raise for starting off the day with a glass of celery juice. Celery has many beneficial nutrients, but will it help your health the way people say?
Many websites and blogs have been touting the impact it has had on people’s lives. A lot of folks say it’s too thick or is downright unpleasant. But they are quick to follow up with claims of better skin, lower weight, ease of quitting coffee and more. We’ve also seen more outrageous claims that it can treat disease, ease anxiety, fight acid reflux and the list goes on.
Big claims like that make us pump the brakes. We’re all for adding things to our healthy routine, but we don’t go in for extreme assertions! So, let’s take a look at the nutrition and the trend and see what benefits it might have.
First of all, we like that the recipe calls for blending whole celery. The minute you put a fruit or veggie through a juicer, you lose fiber and its many health benefits. As celery is so fibrous, it may aid blood sugar by slowing down how quickly the body processes food. If it’s too thick to drink, thinning it with water is preferable to adding anything else. The fiber makes it filling and can help you if you are following a calorie-controlled diet.
The trend calls for drinking 16 ounces of celery juice on an empty stomach. That’s about nine stalks of celery. Adding more low-calorie veggies into your day is not a bad thing. Celery is rich in vitamins A, B6, C and K, calcium, magnesium, folate, manganese, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, phosphorus and potassium. Celery has anti-inflammatory properties, may aid blood pressure and lower cholesterol.
There is no research on if or how drinking celery early in the morning will impact you. The vegetable itself is excellent. So, if you want to try it, you should feel comfortable doing so, but we’re not entirely sold. Celery is almost 95% water so, at the very least, starting your day with celery ensures you’re hydrated. But, for us, we’ll take our water plain and our celery solid!
