I first came to know about the benefits of celery from the wildly popular New York Times best-selling book about celery juice by Anthony William. Don’t get me wrong, green smoothies are my favorite; I often add celery to them. In fact, I don’t even own a juicer. According to what I read, celery has a lot of health benefits, so I thought, why not give it a try. I went out and bought several stalks of celery and committed to drinking the juice every day for 1 week. The first couple of days, I didn’t notice much difference at all. On about the third day, I noticed I was bounding out of bed. I’m an early 5:15am riser and was getting my day going with ease. I also noticed that I wasn’t craving and wasn’t drinking coffee or tea. I really wasn’t hungry and was eating my first meal at lunch time. My energy and alertness was high and I generally just had an overall feeling of wellness. It was about the third day that I shared with my mom what I was doing. She joined me. Immediately her energy level increased, and she felt better. My mom shared that her skin had a glow; some bloating that she’d felt for the past weeks went away. She experienced a vitality that she didn’t normally have. It is because of our experience that we both now juice celery for a week about once every month.Celery is very nutritious. It contains:
· Vitamin C
· Retinoids
· Carotenoids
· Vitamin K
· Folate
· Potassium
· Pantothenic acid
· Vitamins B2 & B6
· Copper
· Manganese
· Magnesium
· Rich and antioxidants
In additional to all the nutritional value, celery has compounds in it that fight inflammation in the body and that promote good heart health. If you decide to juice celery, I recommend that you choose organic celery. Yes, I know nutritionally there tends to be little difference between organic and non-organic vegetables. The reason I’m suggesting organic is due to the amount of exposure that celery gets to pesticides and antibiotic resistant bacteria. Celery is also on the dirty dozen list. The dirty dozen list is a list of 12 fruits and vegetables with the highest levels of pesticide residue. For further details on this refer to the Environmental Working Group’s Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce.
If organic is not in your budget, buy the conventional celery and be sure to wash it well before juicing. Remember, a diet which includes whole foods that are conventional non-organic produce is still healthier than having no whole foods at all.
My Blender celery juice recipe:
1 stalk of organic celery
¼ cup of water
1 nut milk strainer or cheese cloth
1 Blender
1. Chop off the root base of the celery bunch
2. Wash the celery stalks to remove the dirt
3. Cut the celery stalks into thirds, and place the stalks in the blender
4. Pour ¼ cup of water over the celery stalks and blend until smooth. (You may have to add a little bit more water. In addition, you may need to press the stalks down using a utensil as you blend.)
5. Place a nut milk bag or cheesecloth over a jar, pitcher or large bowl
6. Pour the blended celery into the nut milk bag or cheesecloth
7. Using your hands, squeeze the blended celery so the juices run through the bag to your container
8. The pulp that is left in the bag should be dry once all of the juice has been squeezed out
9. Now your juice is ready to drink. Note: I start with refrigerated chilled celery as it is best served chilled. You may add ice cubes if you like. If you have leftover juice be sure to refrigerate it in a jar with a lid. This recipe usually yields approximately 2 cups.
If you have a juicer, follow the first 2 steps above to prepare your celery for juicing, then just feed the stalks through your juicer as you normally juice using your juicer.
Let me know what you think by emailing earringsoff@gmail.com.
Yours in good health,
Teresa