Celery juice has been popping up all over Instagram and Twitter recently as a supposed cure-all for everything from chronic pain to digestive issues and skin complaints. Recently, one of my friends tried this diet, drinking 16 ounces of celery juice every morning on an empty stomach. By the end of a month she was raving about how much it had helped with her migraines, asthma and more.
Is the trend safe?
Drinking celery juice is certainly completely safe. Doing a cleanse in which the ONLY thing you are consuming is celery juice, isn’t. There isn’t much scientific evidence that juicing your food is necessarily better than just eating it in its whole form, and in fact may be slightly worse, as you lose the fibre benefits after the celery is juiced. If you do choose to drink celery juice than make sure that you’re getting fibre in your diet in other ways. A healthy diet includes lots of variety, so I recommend incorporating other whole, plant based foods.
Most people seem to be drinking celery juice on an empty stomach. What’s the benefit?
Its been said that by drinking your celery juice first thing in the morning, it will strengthen your digestion of foods that you eat for the rest of the day. This is disputed by a lot of people though, who equally argue that it has no added benefit.
Is there any scientific research showing celery juice can treat certain conditions?
Celery has powerful powerful antioxidant characteristics to remove free radicals in the body. Consuming antioxidant foods also can decrease the risk of certain cancers.
In addition to its anti-oxidative properties, celery can prevent cardiovascular diseases, jaundice, liver disease, urinary tract obstruction, gout and rheumatic disorders. Celery can even reduce blood sugar levels, blood lipids and blood pressure! Experimental studies show that celery has antifungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Celery seeds have even been used in the treatment of skin conditions including psoriasis, and respiratory diseases including asthma and bronchitis.
Celery juice and chronic conditions:
In one study on diabetic rats, treatment with an extract from celery seeds modified their glucose and insulin levels, improved weight, and increased antioxidant enzyme activity. Another study found that celery leaf extract reduced blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride in animals with hypertension or high blood pressure.
Despite these findings being incredibly promising and exciting in their results, there have not been large human studies done using celery juice as a treatment for chronic conditions, and it should not be relied upon as being a cure-all for these conditions.
Personal experience:
I’ve been trying to drink a celery juice once a day for two weeks now, and I have personally noticed a vast improvement in my skin. While my skin isn’t particularly acne prone and is definitely helped out by a complete lack of dairy products in my diet, I have been struggling with hormonal spots due to my birth control. While drinking the juice could also just be forcing me to consume more water and therefore improving my skin through that, I am really interested to see if I can reap any further benefits, and will be continuing to drink it every day for the next two weeks to see the affects it has!
