Celery’s Health Benefits

Celery. Almost every refrigerator holds a sleeve of it.

Celery is an important food source of conventional antioxidant nutrients, including vitamin C, beta-carotene, and manganese. But its "claim to fame" in terms of antioxidant nutrients may very well be its phytonutrients. Many of these phytonutrients fall into the category of phenolic antioxidants and have been shown to provide anti-inflammatory benefits as well. Below is a representative list of the phenolic antioxidants found in celery. 

Raw, it’s a grab-and-go food, with a satisfying crunch and a handy groove for holding anything spreadable. Cooked, it imparts a delicate flavor to salads, soups, and stir-fries. And it has only 11 calories per cup. Yet it is most often described as bland, boring, watery.
Nonetheless, celery qualifies as a high-powered health food. Although it isn’t strong in conventional nutrients, it does contain dozens of phytonutrients.

Celery’s Health Benefits

• Celery is especially rich in the phytocompounds currently under study for preventing or treating several forms of cancer, multiple sclerosis, allergies, neurogenerative diseases, as well as improving learning and memory.
• Celery (and celery seed) contain compounds that may lower blood pressure.
• Celery seed has a long history of use as a healing herb. Ethnobotanist James Duke swears by it for treating his gout. He suggests steeping 1 teaspoon of freshly ground celery seeds in 1 cup of boiling water, and drinking it.
• Research has shown an extract of celery in skin preparations repels mosquitoes as effectively as 25 percent Deet.
• Alcohol extracts of celery seed may protect the liver from damaging substances.
To preserve its phytonutrients, refrigerate celery and use within a week or so of purchase or harvest, chop just before using, and steam lightly or roast rather than boil.

A Few Exceptions 

Celery ranks among the most allergenic of vegetables. The experience of an itchy throat or swollen lips after eating raw or cooked celery, or an herbal product containing celery seeds, may be “oral allergy syndrome,” generally mild, but occasionally life-threatening.
The celery allergy usually appears in people allergic to birch and certain other pollens, and the reaction to celery or its leaves or seeds may be most pronounced while the offending plants are pollinating.

Digestive Tract Support

In addition to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients that help protect the digestive tract as a whole, celery contains pectin-based polysaccharides that can provide the stomach with special benefits. We've become accustomed to thinking about polysaccharides as starchy molecules that are used by cells as a way to store up simple sugars. But there are other types of polysaccharides in plants, including the non-starch, pectin-based polysaccharides found in celery. (Pectin is a sugar-related molecule that is largely formed from a substance called glucuronic acid.) The pectin-based polysaccharides found in celery —including apiuman—appear to have special importance in producing anti-inflammatory benefits. In animal studies, celery extracts containing apiuman have been shown to improve the integrity of the stomach lining, decrease risk of stomach ulcer (gastric ulcer), and better control the levels of stomach secretions. We look forward to future research that may confirm these stomach support benefits in humans based on dietary intake of celery in its whole food form.

Cardiovascular Support

Given the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of celery described earlier in this section, it's not surprising to see the interest of researchers in the cardiovascular benefits of celery. Oxidative stress and inflammation in the bloodstream are critical problems in the development of many cardiovascular diseases, especially atherosclerosis. Unfortunately, most of the studies we've seen in this area have involved animals. Still, we've seen promising connections between the pectin-based polysaccharides in celery and decreased risk of inflammation in the cardiovascular system. We've seen these same types of connections between celery flavonoids and decreased risk of cardiovascular inflammation.
Phthalides are a further category of phytonutrients found in celery that seems important to mention as providing potential cardiovascular benefits. Phenolic substances found in celery, phthalides are a major contributor to the unique flavor of this vegetable. Researchers have demonstrated that celery phthalides can act as smooth muscle relaxants, most likely through their impact on the flow of calcium and potassium inside cells and related nervous system activity involved with muscle relaxation. Of course, relaxation of smooth muscles surrounding our blood vessels allows them to expand and the result is a lowering of our blood pressure. (This overall process is called vasodilation.)
Phthalides in celery may also act as diuretics, further helping to lower the pressure inside our blood vessels. Unfortunately, most of the research we've seen in this area involves celery seeds, celery oil, or celery extracts - not the whole food itself. So it's not yet clear if these muscle-relaxant properties and blood pressure-lowering properties of celery phthalides will be provided to us if we include celery in our meal plans in everyday food amounts. But we will be surprised if future research on dietary intake of celery does not show some type of cardiovascular benefit directly related to celery phthalides.