5 Reasons Why You Should Eat Celery More Often

Fruits & Vegetables aids Digestion, antioxidants, Cancer Prevention, Celery, heart health HealthyLifeWeb October 7, 2024 0 Comments

5 Reasons Why You Should Eat Celery More Often

Celery is part of the Apiaceae family, herbs that also include carrots, parsley, parsnips, etc. You must have heard about celery and you probably know that it is used as a spice with a pleasant taste and aroma, but did you know that it can be prepared in various ways and be useful for better health, in many aspects?

Below, is some more detailed information that will encourage you to eat celery more often.

Celery contains a huge number of different phytochemicals that give it its positive properties. It is quite similar to parsley, in that it grows taller, has somewhat larger leaves, and forms a ball root.

In the diet, all its parts are used, which are a rich source of a number of different nutritional components. It can be found in markets throughout the year. As we have already said, all its parts are used for food – the root, the stalk, the leaves, and even the seeds.

5 Reasons Why You Should Eat Celery More Often — Photo by Monika Borys on Unsplash

Celery has been used for centuries in various cuisines around the world and is prepared in a variety of ways, as fresh, as an addition to various stews, soups, fish, hummus, and salads, but it is also often used as a dry, i.e. spice.

Cooks recommend finely chopping fresh celery before adding it to dishes, because that way its aromas are most pronounced. To take advantage of its positive health properties, eating it while it is crisp and fresh is best.

5 reasons why you should eat celery more often:

Rich nutritional

Celery is an extremely nutritionally concentrated food, it contains a huge percentage of water, consequently few calories, and on the other hand, it has a rich micronutrient composition.

One stalk contains only 6 calories, 0.6g of vegetable fiber, potassium, vitamin B9, vitamins A, K, C, and choline, but also larger amounts of sodium.

Celery is a powerful antioxidant

Celery has an extremely powerful antioxidative effect due to the presence of potent antioxidative components, such as the following:

apigenin, luteolin, kaempferol and quercetin (flavonoid antioxidants)
selenium
coumaric and ferulic acid
vitamin C
carotenoids

Antioxidants are the body’s defense mechanism against free radicals – harmful components that are constantly produced as metabolic waste in the body and oxidatively damage its various cells, tissues, and ultimately organs.

The body has mechanisms to produce a certain percentage of the necessary antioxidants, but they should also be taken in through a diet rich in foods, such as celery.

Constant oxidative damage leads to processes of chronic inflammation, which in the long term is one of the main reasons for the development of chronic diseases.

Celery is good for digestive health

In addition to its antioxidant effect that can be good for the digestive tract, celery can also offer some other beneficial effects for digestion. It is also good for dealing with bad breath that is related to oral health, but sometimes also to digestion or digestion itself.

The pectin substances (part of its plant fibers) that celery contains, including the component known as apiumane, have been shown in animal studies to be beneficial for stomach ulcers, but also generally beneficial for the inner tissue of the intestines.

The 95% aqueous composition of celery in combination with its soluble and insoluble vegetable fibers, enables healthier and better functioning digestion (food for the beneficial microflora and improved intestinal peristatics). In addition, for these reasons, foods such as celery are particularly suitable for the weight loss process.

Good food for the heart

Traditional Chinese medicine uses celery and its extracts to lower blood pressure. An animal study examined the effect of its extract on normotensive and hypertensive mice.

The conclusion was that the celery extract worked to lower blood pressure in those mice with elevated blood pressure, while it did not work in the others, so the blood pressure remained normal.

Additionally, celery also contains solid amounts of potassium, as well as fiber.

Vegetable fibers, on the other hand, according to a series of studies, can act on a more successful reduction of cholesterol in the blood, and there are data according to which they can also reduce blood pressure.

High blood pressure and a disturbed lipid profile (elevated cholesterol and triglycerides) are among the main risk factors for most heart diseases.

Anticancer effect

As we have already mentioned, celery contains apigenin, a powerful antioxidant that in studies also shows an anti-cancer effect.

According to the authors of one of the studies on this topic, laboratory tests have shown that apigenin can contribute to apoptosis, a process of a type of “programmed” cell death, which can be useful as a cancer treatment.

In addition, there is data on a certain anticancer effect of another flavonoid antioxidant in celery – luteolin. According to one of the studies, luteolin can prevent the spread of malignant cells and induce their death.

The authors of this study say that luteolin may also make malignant cells more susceptible to attack by corresponding chemotherapy chemicals.

Certain research indicates that celery can also help in the prevention of: