Move over, kale. Sorry, spirulina. There’s a new green juice obsession in town — and the vegetable is one you probably eat every week. Celery juice is getting a lot of attention on social media and natural health circles as a way to counteract everything from eczema to liver problems.
Is celery juice really a miracle worker, or just another Jilly Juice “cure” with no solid basis in science?
It’s a little of both.
What are the benefits of celery juice?
There’s no question that celery is healthy for humans to consume. It contains many vitamins and minerals, including antioxidant vitamin C, along with magnesium, iron, calcium and more.
Celery is also a good source of fiber and other phytonutrients.
“Celery is truly the savior when it comes to chronic illness,” author Anthony William writes on his website, Medical Medium. “I’ve seen thousands of people who suffer from chronic and mystery illness restore their health by drinking 16 ounces of celery juice daily on an empty stomach.”
William says that the celery juice benefits include the ability to reduce inflammation and cure autoimmune diseases. He also says that it can improve digestion by removing the “toxic sludge” in the stomach.
Holistic health coach Molly Alliman also told Well + Good that celery juice is a “natural diuretic” that can “help the liver flush toxins” to reduce bloat.
Are they right? Yes and no. Their claims about the benefits of celery juice — like all foods touted as “miracle cures” — are taken out of context and warped to support the idea they’re trying to promote. Celery does contain antioxidants and phenolic compounds shown to help reduce inflammation, along with flavonoids, tannins, volatile oils and alkaloids, that are shown to help regulate acid and support the mucus lining in the stomach, helping conditions like ulcers.
Your liver doesn’t need celery to help to “flush toxins” out of your body — part of its job is to metabolize and get rid of chemicals and drugs in the body and it does it innately without intervention. That said, a study on rats did show that celery helped them improve liver enzyme function — a result that could help people with liver disease.
Should you drink celery juice?
The answer: If you want to — or you could just eat celery, too.
Drinking celery juice, either made at home or store bought from companies like Pressed Juicery, can give you the vitamins and minerals your body needs on a daily basis. Just don’t expect the simple act of drinking a glass of celery juice to completely cure everything that ails you.
