Top 10 Health Benefits of Celery
- Helps Lower High Cholesterol
- Lowers Inflammation
- Prevents or Treat High Blood Pressure
- Helps Prevent Ulcers
- Protects Liver Health
- Benefits for Weight Loss
- Boosts Digestion and Reduces Bloating
- Contains Anti-Microbial Properties that Fight Infections
- Helps Prevent Urinary Tract Infections
- May Help Protect from Cancer
1. Helps Lower High Cholesterol
Benefits of celery include its cholesterol-lowering power that makes it useful for improving or maintaining heart health. Celery contains a unique compound called 3-n-butylphthalide (BuPh) that has previously been reported to have lipid-lowering action, but researchers believe celery has many other other beneficial compounds that are still emerging in research.
In a study conducted by the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Singapore, when rats were fed a high-fat diet for eight weeks, rats that had been given celery extract showed significantly lower levels of lipids in their blood compared to the control group of rats that didn’t receive celery extract. (2)
The group supplementing with celery extract experienced a beneficial reduction in serum total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride (TG) concentrations.
2. Lowers Inflammation
Celery contains antioxidants and polysaccharides that are known to act as anti-inflammatories, especially flavonoid and polyphenol antioxidants. These support overall health, especially as someone ages, by fighting free radical damage (or oxidative stress) that can lead to inflammation. Inflammation is often a contributing cause of chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, arthritis and many more. (3)
Researchers have identified over a dozen different types of antioxidants that are responsible for the benefits of celery — these include such phenolic acids as caffeic acid and ferulic acid, plus flavaols like quercetin. This makes celery useful for treating a wide range of conditions that are made worse by inflammation: joint pain (such as from arthritis), gout, kidney and liver infections, skin disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, and urinary tract infections, just to name a few.
3. Prevent or Treat High Blood Pressure
Celery seed extracts have anti-hypertensive properties that help lower high blood pressure, one of the important risk factors for coronary heart disease, which is the largest cause of mortality in industrial countries.
Benefits of celery seeds include potentially helping control chronic elevated blood pressure levels. The blood pressure-lowering benefits of celery come from its seeds, which contain hexanic, methanolic and aqueous-ethanolic extracts that improve circulation, lower inflammation and help control blood pressure.
When rats were given celery seed extract over a seven-week period in a study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, they experienced significant improvements in blood pressure levels compared to rats fed the same diet but not receiving celery extract. It’s believed that celery helps lower high blood pressure by acting as a smooth muscle relaxant and improving the flow of calcium and potassium into and out of cells. Celery extract helps blood vessels expand and contract, improve blood flow, and aid in overall heart health. (4)
4. Helps Prevent Ulcers
Here’s one of the benefits of celery you may not have known about: It can help prevent or reduce the formation of painful ulcers. A 2010 study published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Biology found that celery contains a special type of ethanol extract that is useful in protecting the lining of the digestive tract from ulcers. Celery extract has the ability to significantly replenish depleted levels of gastric mucus that is needed in the stomach lining to prevent tiny holes and openings from forming.
Researchers believe celery nourishes the stomach, colon and intestines due to the presence of chemical constituents, such as flavonoids, tannins, volatile oils and alkaloids, that control the level of gastric acid released while also improving the level of protective mucus. (5)
5. Protects Liver Health
When researchers from the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Helwan University in Egypt fed rats celery (along with chicory and barley), these rats experienced a reduction in the amount of dangerous fat buildup within the liver.