Celery

This article is part of a larger article titled "100+ Healthiest Foods On Planet Earth."  Read it here.

With a reputation for being more of a key component of the ‘supermodel diet’ (not something we recommend) than a powerful force for your health, it may come as a surprise to some that celery does have some important health benefits.

It improves digestive health and could help combat the negative effects of eating fried foods. While its reputation may always be as one of the ultimate low-calorie foods, it is worth thinking of celery as more than just a diet fad.

Nutritionally, celery doesn’t do particularly well per gram. But per calorie, it has some fantastic nutritional benefits. 100g provides 8% of your daily value (DV) of vitamin A, 7% DV of potassium, and 6% DV of dietary fibre. While this isn’t a huge amount, consider that you get all this nutrition for a mere 16 calories!

The obvious point to make here is one about weight loss and satiety. Celery has long been associated with the ‘fact’ that it takes more calories to digest than you get from eating it; it’s a ‘negative calorie’ food. This is a myth. Your digestive system is efficient enough to extract the calories from celery without expending more than it gains.

However, this doesn’t discount the fact that celery may be a great weapon in people’s war on weight gain. The dietary fibre in it will go a long way to increasing satiety (the feeling of fullness), and, frankly, when you can eat a kilogram of something and it only provides you with 160 calories, it’s going to help you lose weight (N.B. this isn’t a good approach!).

Beyond even this, celery may have some profound health benefits. First, it has advantages for digestive health. One compound, luteolin, which celery is high in, has been found to help inhibit the inflammatory response in inflammatory bowel disease. It has also been shown to prevent gastric ulcers, and to protect the gastric lining.

Finally, there is one benefit of celery that is rather recently discovered (and slightly controversial): it protects from the toxic effects of acrylamide. Acrylamide is a compound with possible (but not proven) carcinogenic properties and toxic effects, which has been found in certain starchy fried foods, so it is possible that celery could counteract some of the toxic effects of processed foods.

Regardless of whether you choose to believe this, celery is still a fantastic addition to any healthy and balanced diet.