Main benefits of celery include its high antioxidant content. Along with other vitamins and minerals celery is very helpful in many health conditions. It detoxifies your body, reduces weight, lowers blood pressure, prevents urinary tract infection and boosts Immunity along with many other beneficial effects on your body.
What is Celery
Celery is a vegetable from the Apiaceae family from which parsley and carrots are. It originated in Mediterranean and North African areas and spread across the world.
Celery requires moist and cool climatic conditions. The plant can not withstand high heat. So it can be cultivated anywhere where those climatic conditions are met.
Organic celery can give you all the therapeutic values as most other conventionally produced celery goes through a high level of pesticide usage. The pesticide residue on celery may be more harmful than the benefits celery can offer.
Celery Nutrition Facts
Celery is a low calorie (just 16 calories per 100 grams) high nutrition vegetable. Following are its main nutrition contents.
- Total Carbohydrate 3 g - 1%
- Dietary fiber 1.6 g - 6%
- Sugar 1.8 g
- Protein 0.7 g - 1%
- Sodium - 3%
- Potassium - 7%
- Calcium - 4%
- Iron - 1%
- Vitamin A - 8%
- Vitamin C - 5%
- Vitamin B-6 - 5%
- Magnesium - 2%
The high fiber, vitamins and minerals of celery give an all rounded nutrition for your entire body.
Health Benefits of Celery
Celery offers multiple health benefits and some of the main ones are listed here.
1. Boosts Immunity
Celery rich in antioxidants Vitamin A and Vitamin C helps to boost your Immunity. You will develop more resistance to attacks from.viruses and bacteria.
Your risks to catch common cold and other infections significantly reduces.
This also reduces oxidative stresses caused by free radicals.
2. Lowers Cholesterol Levels
Celery is a good protection against heart conditions as it lowers cholesterol.
Researchers have found that celery extract reduces serum total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglycerides.
All these elements have a significant role in developing atherosclerosis in which your arteries narrow impairing heart functioning.
A compound called 3-n - butylphthalide (BuPh) has the cholesterol lowering capacity. There are many other compounds that also have capabilities to reduce the lipids.
3. Controls high blood pressure
Celery seeds which are generally removed from cooking have special capabilities to lower blood pressure. High blood pressure is one of the main causes for coronary heart disease responsible for high death rates in the developed world.
Celery seeds extract contains compounds such as aqueous -ethanolic, hexanic and methanolic extracts that help blood circulation, lowers inflammation and reduces blood pressure.
Celery extract helps blood vessels to contract and expand efficiently by acting as muscle relaxant.
4. Prevents Urinary Tract Infections
Celery helps to reduce uric acid. It fights bacterial infections in the intestine and the rest of the digestive tract and reproductive organs.
Celery is as effective as cranberry juice for UTI and bladder infections.
The diuretic properties of celery improve urine flow as a result the urinary tract is cleared fast and infection bacteria are flushed out fast.
5. Helps in weight loss
Celery is low in calories and high in fiber. This is an ideal food for controlling as well as lowering your weight.
High fiber contents ensure the feeling of fullness and no fat content helps to lower the weight.
You can use celery juice or eat celery in salads to get the best weight loss results.
6. Lowers Inflammations
Celery reduces inflammation as a result your conditions like asthma and arthritis improves. You suffer less from these conditions. Your overall heart health also improves due to lower inflammation.
7. Improves Digestion
Celery acts as body detox. The diuretic impact of celery not only controls your UTI but also improves your digestion by removing bacterial infections in the digestive tract.
This reduces bloating and gases.
Precautions and tips
Celery is a very safe and healthy vegetable. Following precautions will help you to get the best out of celery.
- Always buy organic celery. It is free of harmful pesticides that may cause more harm than the benefits celery offers.
- Be aware that in somewhere cases celery can cause allergic reactions.
- Avoid celery seeds completely from your savings as these seeds can the most allergic. Even cooking can't stop them from causing allergic reactions.
- Stay away from celery during pregnancy as some of the volatile oil in salad can cause contractions of uterus.
Tips
Buy your celery which is green with no discoloration.The fresh and crispy celery can be stored in the refrigerator for a week. Do not deep freeze it.
Use celery in the following simple ways to get most nutritional values.
- Add freshly chopped celery in salads
- Make soup from both stalks and leaves. You can add celery as one of the ingredients in your vegetable soup it any other soup.
- Toss finely chopped celery in a bowl of dried fruits to make healthy fruit salad.
You can add celery to your food in any other way you prefer. Celery is a very healthy vegetable. Do not ignore it.