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Celery Juice: Miracle Cure Or Hyped Fad
There is a lot of press recently about the amazing health benefits of drinking celery juice. Countless papers seem to have sprung up seemingly overnight that make the claim that everyone needs to be juicing celery and how helpful it is. Everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop website, to the entire wellness and green drink community is pushing celery. It’s similar to how Kale, wheetgrass, and beets (for a while) were the superfoods.
So, is there some basis for juicing celery, and if it is good, what exactly is it good for. This article will give you a breakdown on the possible health benefits of drinking celery juice and if it might be better to go ahead and simply eat it or if you are better of drinking it. And, of course, a guide to how best you can make and drink celery juice.
Why You Should Be Juicing Celery
Lowering Blood Pressure, Helping To Prevent Cancer, and preventing Diabetes.
Some news reports are hyper critical of the benefits of drinking celery juice, others focus on the celeb factor and how it’s the hot trend among celebrities. However, there is quite a bit of information out there that there are serious healthy benefits from drinking celery juice. (studies liked at the bottom of the article).
The primary reasons people juice celery is that it has been linked to lowering blood pressure, helping cleanse the body, and has also been shown to help with inflammation. In addition to vitamins such as C and K (a very important vitamin that many people are deficient in) celery juice is also high in minerals such as magnesium.
Of particular interest to medical researchers has been the flavanoid apigenin. This is a compound that has been linked to reducing tumor growth.
Drawbacks and Side effects Of Drinking Celery Juice
There are not too many drawbacks to drinking celery juice, but one that you need to be aware of is that celery juice is a diuretic. That means that you need to drink enough water so a to not suffer any negative side effects. There are also some people who end up with diarrhea but often times this results from people who are attempting to do a cleanse (if you are trying to do a cleanse, celery juice wold not be my first choice. Something lighter such as a green drink with lemon and apples would be the first choice).
Is Fresh Celery Juice Better Than Bottled (and is that even a thing?)
Of course. That shouldn’t even be a question. Any time you want to get the maximum health benefits you should be drinking fresh vegetable juice. When you buy bottled juice, you’re not getting anything close to the amount of antioxidents and nutrients that you get with regular fresh juice. This is especially relevant when it comes to enzymes.
Eating Celery Vs Drinking Celery Juice
Another thing to consider is if you might benefit more from eating celery. Really, the main consideration here is that celery is one of the more fibrous vegetables out there and it can be quite filling. If you eat a few stalks of celery you will feel full. So, if you’re looking for the anti-cancer properties that many people say celery has, then juicing it is certainly better. However, there is a great deal of benefit to the fiber in the celery. Especially if you’re looking to lower your blood pressure. I have a write up on the best juicers for celery if you’re interested.
Fiber in general is good for lowering blood pressure, so it’s not a bad idea to eat some celery, but if you’re looking to benefit from the anti-oxidants, then drinking celery juice is the way to go. If you find that it’s not the best tasting juice (it’s not like wheatgrass, but it’s also not a fruit juice) you can always add something such as pineapple or apple to it. But remember to go heavy on the celery and not just add one or two stalks. The goal here is to get the equivalent of several stalks of celery–something that most people would find discomforting to eat.
Best Juicer For Juicing Celery
It goes without saying that a regular juicer will not suffice when it comes to extracting all of the juice from celery. The sheer amount of fiber necessary to remove will clog up a regular centrifugal juicer. And you can’t use a classic hand churned wheat grass juicer. You will want a cold press, something that has an auger style design.
Auger juicers are both slow style juicers as well as cold press. This is important as celery requires a tremendous amount of juicing power to extract the juice. It’s not like when you’re juicing apples, carrots, or other hard vegetables…and certainly not the same as with leafy greens. If you’ve ever taken a look at the pulp that comes out of a centrifugal juicer than you will notice how wet it is. You get a decent amount of juice if you’re using a top of the line (read expensive!) style centrifugal juicer, but you are also left with a lot of wet pulp. Compare that with the pulp that comes out
Sometimes you can get away with using a cheap juicer or one that uses a centrifugal design, but if you’re juicing celery, then you need a strong auger juicer. It is the only way to extract the juice from the celery. Check out my juicer reviews and recommendations here.
If I had to suggest one single model as the best for juicing celery, it would be this one by Omega. It has the famous auger style juicer which Omega pioneered, but it also has an adjustable pressure setting which is optimal for when you are juicing celery. You want to squeeze all of the juice you can out of celery, which is much tougher and fiberous than most other vegetables. So, the slow and tough auger style squeeze is going to get the most juice from your celery.
Studies Relating To Health Benefits Of Drinking Celery Juice
Hi there everyone!
My names Jason (Jay for short). You can find out more about me and why I started this website here.
Stay healthy and I hope you enjoy the information!