So one of the popular questions I’ve been hearing in the last year or so has been about juicing celery. I even wrote an article about the health benefits to drinking celery.

A lot of the current fad has to do with a popular book that circulated online and in the blogsphere that touted the health benefits of celery juice. But juicing celery has been around for ages.

In fact, when I first started juicing, celery was one of the first things I juiced in my juicer, along with apples. Suffice to say, juicing celery is here to stay.

Now, if you are someone who hasn’t been around juicing for a long time, and you have taken an interest in juicing celery, then it’s important that you choose the right juicer.

Celery is a vegetable that is often linked in with other “hard vegetables” such as carrots. In order to extract the maximum amount of celery juice, it’s important to get a masticating juicer.

What I’ve done here is explained:

• Why you need a masticating juicer for celery
• What happens if you use a regular juicer for celery
• What to look for in a masticating juicer to juice celery with
• Which brands make the best masticating juicers
• What my personal recommendation for people is

 

Why Should You Use A Masticating Juicer for Celery

So the first thing that I’d like to cover is why you are going to want to use a masticating juicer for celery.

To start with, I recommend that you always use a masticating juicer when you are making juice with few exceptions. Unless you are making citrus juice, for instance, then I always like to use a masticating juicer. Simply stated, they are superior juicers. It’s only when you’re making fresh squeezed orange juice or lemon juice and you don’t want to juice the rind that I would suggest using something other than a masticating juicer.

Masticating juicers are slower than chop style juicers. While that might sound bad to most folks, it’s actually a big plus! You don’t want a high speed motor and a fast juicing machine when making juice at home. The reason is that speed produces heat and you’re going to end up with warm juice and heat damage.

There are a lot of people out there that shill for chop juicers that tell you that heat doesn’t damage juice, but I disagree. If you’re going to go through the effort of making juice at home then you really should invest in a quality slow juicer.

The most important difference between masticating juicers and regular blade or chop style juicers is in the amount of juice that they extract.  It’s been shown time and time again that masticating juicers extract significantly more juice than non-masticating juicers. And this is especially true when you are juicing hard vegetables such as carrots and celery.

The fiber in vegetables can be difficult for a regular juicer to deal with. That is the reason why you will see pulp from regular juicers that is wet. People will try and run that wet pulp through the juicer a second time to extract more juice, but that can end up clogging the juicing blades and ruin your machine. Another reason to steer clear of a chop style centrifugal juicer.

I’ve owned both centrifugal juicers and masticating juicers and believe me the results are demonstrably different. If you juice celery with an older blade style juicer you are not going to get much juice out of the celery. What you will get is a lot of wet pulp and a small bit of juice.

Auger Juicers Count As Masticating Juicers

There is somewhat of  misleading number of terms that float around the juicing industry. You might see someone refer to a juicer as a cold press juicer, while other stores might label the same juicer a masticating juicer or an auger juicer. The variety of terms can be difficult to suss out. But it’s actually really simple.

First, all juicers can basically be split into two different types. The first type is a cold press juicer and the second is a centrifugal juicer. These are two very different juicers.

Cold press juicers are the same thing as masticating juicers and auger juicers. They are just different ways to talk about the juicing process.

A cold press juicer is one that does not create much heat. Likewise, an auger juicer is one that uses an auger instead of a chop style blade disc. And a masticating juicer is one that masticates or chews the juice as opposed to cutting it. Masticating is a process similar to how you chew food. The auger press literally presses or masticating the vegetables and fruits and squeezes all of the liquid out of it.

When you’re buying a juicer for celery, it’s important that you select one that advertises itself as either a Masticating Juicer or a Cold Press Juicer.

However, one word of warning that I did want to mention. Some unscrupulous advertisers will mention that there juicers are slow and that is a bit misleading if they are not masticating. If the juicer is not a masticating juicer, it’s not really a slow press juicer. Slow implies “slow press”. Even if you buy a juicer that is a slow motor, if it’s a centrifugal juicer it’s going to be significantly faster than any slow press auger juicer.

So a safe way to be sure you are getting a juicer that is best for celery is to buy only one that is labeled masticating.

Is Celery Considered A High Fiber Food?

Yes, celery is a high fiber food and this is one of the main reasons that you need to get a masticating juicer. When you’re juicing foods that are low in fiber, you can make do with old chop juicers even though I would not recommend it. They do extract a decent amount of juice.

However, once you start juicing high fiber foods such as celery you are going to run into trouble. The fiber in celery is really beneficial, but it can also be difficult on your stomach. You might find yourself bloated if you eat a head of celery. It’s simply too much fiber. And there is a limit to the amount of beneficial fiber that you will need.

But the phytochemicals in celery juice are all super beneficial. If you have a giant glass of celery juice then you’re going to benefit from drinking all of those healthy nutrients. And by juicing the celery, you remove the helpful but bloating fiber.

 

Can You Juice Celery In A Regular Juicer?

Like I’ve mentioned above, you can juice celery in a regular juicer but that doesn’t mean that you should. The juice that you will get out of the celery when you are using a substandard regular juicer is inferior in every way. First, the pulp will be moist which is a tell tale sign that you’re not getting enough of the juice out.

Second, the juicer will run hot and this will destroy the nutrients in the celery juice. It won’t completely destroy those nutrients, but it will harm some of them.

But I say from experience that the biggest issue is the waste of celery. You will just mater of factly get more celery juice when you use a masticating juicer than if you use a regular juicer. It might not seem like a lot at first, but when you consider that you’re wasting celery each and every time you juice, it really begins to add up.

Should You Juice Celery In A Masticating Juicer By Itself or With Fruit?

I think you can juice celery alone of with other fruit and vegetables. It doesn’t much matter, from a biodigestable point of view. It has much more to do with how well you like the taste of the celery juice.

So, if you find celery juice to taste bland or even a bit unappealing, then by all means spice it up and make it more flavorful by adding something such as a nice tart apple or a lemon. And use the lemon rind as long as you’re using organic lemons!

Some things don’t blend well with celery, but it’s rare. In fact, celery has a pretty smooth and non-offensive flavor profile and you can use this to pair it with almost any other fruit or vegetable!

I cover the best juicer for celery more in depth here as well as later on in this article (with special attention given to masticating models).

Should You Drink Celery Juice On An Empty Stomach?

I’ve drank celery on an empty stomach many times and it’s not caused any discomfort. It’s not as gas forming as certain juices. However, I have also been juicing for a long time so I do suggest that people who are just starting out to juicing be careful. But I do suggest that you don’t drink juice after a big meal. That’s a surefire way to get a stomach ache.

Some people like to have a juice first thing in the morning once they’ve kicked their caffeine habit. It’s a great way of breaking the fast.

However, it’s also fine to have a small juice with a small piece of food until you feel comfortable drinking juice without food.

I personally find that if you drink juice you can swap out a meal in it’s place. It’s a good way to give your body rest.

 

Now for my personal picks for the:

Top 2 Best Masticating Juicers For Celery

Here are my top two recommendations. If you like either, feel free to read more about them on Amazon. You can see what other people have to say and get the full details and specs (warranty info, RPM speed, and other manufacturer details). Disclosure, I own an Omega and therefore I really do suggest them for any sort of blending. But they are especially good at blending celery. They are a slow masticating juicer and are ideal for making celery juice. In fact, I would say that almost every juice I make  (fruit or vegetable) contains celery.

 

The Omega J8006- My Personal Juicer!

I can’t recommend this juicer enough. It’s super strong and durable and it’s very easy to use. It’s also easy to clean. The thing has a great warranty and Omega is probably the best brand of juicer on the market. There are some juicers that have some extra features (wide mouth, vertical design) but for the money this is the one that provides the most value. You cannot go wrong with this juicer. If I were to only every recommend one single juicer than this would be it!

 

The Tribest Slow Star- A Great Vertical Design

Vertical juicers are relatively recent and many people do like them for the space saving aspect. Also, vertical juicers are more intuitively easy to use. If you’re use to using a blender, then it makes more sense. Otherwise you are probably going to have a very small learning curve when using a horizontal blender. But honestly, that’s not a major deal.

This Tribest design is great because not only is it a slow press masticating juicer but it has a specially designed auger that provides a uniquely engineered auger with double the grooves. This provides even more pressing power and extracts even more juice. Plus it has a really nice design and look.  And Tribest has a long and proven name in the juicer industry.

 

 

 

Sources:

Peer Reviewed Study on Celery Antioxidant properties