- Discover why this often unloved vegetable deserves more praise
- The ‘sticky’ way to losing weight easily…
- …and how three old favourites can also help too
On the 23rd of December I wrote you a Good Life Letter mostly about celery (‘Discover how celery could save your Christmas’).
If you didn’t get it, then take a look on the website here.
For the few who emailed me to say they didn’t like celery, I need to make an apology, because I’m about to recommend celery AGAIN…
…this time for blood pressure, general well being and even weight loss… let me make something clear.
Please don’t think that I’m a merciless ‘celery pushing’ maniac.
Yes, I’m getting into celery as a home remedy, but you won’t find me in the Collins kitchen, lining up my weeping lockdown family, forcing them to munch down celery sticks ‘or NO TV!’
Neither do I leave sticks of celery in a jar of water by my wife’s bedside, with a note saying ‘Try this to shift some extra pounds, love, Your Hubbie.’
To be fair, I already tried that and was surprised by the extremely negative response… but at least I got to spend a night camping in a tent in the back garden!
What I’m trying to say is…
I’m aware that lots of people can’t bear the taste of raw celery I know, because many readers emailed me to ask whether cooked celery would be as good for your health as eating it raw.
Others asked if I knew some pleasant ways to eat celery without the harsh taste, and still get all the same benefits.
So here are some useful tips…
Why cooked celery is OK
As you know, many foods lose their nutritional value when cooked.
The good news is that celery keeps its important nutrients rather well. Remember that it’s the leaves that contain the most nutritional benefits.
So if you’re not keen on raw celery, try a Good Life reader’s fantastic recipe for celery soup:
- 1 whole head of celery with leaves – chopped in a pan and just cover with water.
- 2 vegetable stock cubes
- Ground black pepper
- Star anise – about one and a half ‘stars’
- Bring to boil and simmer for twenty minutes liquidise and serve with Crusty bread.
- Eat. DELICIOUS!
And here are some other tasty ways to get the benefits of celery.
- Add celery – with the leaves – to soups, stews and casseroles to give it a strong flavour and an extra healthy kick.
- User a juicer to extract the celery juice and mix it with your favourite fruit and vegetables for a healthy punch.
- Sauté chopped celery in a pan and have it as a side dish. This helps retain most of the potassium in the vegetable, and takes away some of the taste you get when you eat it raw.
While looking into the ‘cooked vs. uncooked’ theories about celery, I came across some really surprising benefits…
Celery as a diet aid
For many folk the New Year is a time that they try to lose the few extra pounds they gained over Christmas.
If you’re trying to lose weight, one of your worst enemies is that hunger pang that drives you to bolt down a massive dinner and still crave more.
A nice trick is to reduce your appetite before you eat and this can easily be achieved by adding a tablespoonful of honey to a small cup of celery juice, extracted with a juicer. Sip it slowly.
Many believe that this can help reduce your appetite if taken half an hour before a meal.
This means that you get the chance to enjoy your food for its taste, and not see it as fuel for your blood sugar.
You can enhance the effect by eating more slowly which will mean you get more full, quicker, and eat less.
One way of fighting food cravings is the ‘honey, garlic and vinegar’ method, which I’ve covered many times before, especially in my book of the same name!
Could celery lower blood pressure?
Here’s an interesting idea. Some early studies on animals are linking celery to low blood pressure.
Why could this be?
Well, celery contains ‘pthalides’, compounds which could not only give you a GREAT Scrabble score, but which help relax the muscles in the artery walls.
With more room in the arteries, the blood can flow at a lower pressure.
The same compounds also reduce your levels of stress hormone, which also help keep your blood vessels relaxed and open.
It’s still early days for this research, but there’s no harm in trying to add some celery to your diet.
Hopefully today’s letter has given you plenty of ways to do this without gagging!
Finally…
A WARNING!
While celery is natural and safe, please be aware that it’s a strong diuretic, meaning you might find yourself weeing more.
Don’t drink more than 3 glasses of celery juice a day. Pregnant women should talk to a doctor first.
As I always like to remind you, I’m here to offer you ideas, tips and food for thought. I’m your personal researcher and companion, but I’m not a doctor.
So if you are worried about a serious health problem, please talk to a medical professional.
This is also why I can’t answer any Good Life health enquiries on a one-one-one basis as this would be construed, quite rightly, as medical advice.
That said, I use all the Good Life Letter enquiry emails as a springboard for my research, so hopefully I answer everything in my newsletters.
Remember, if you want information on a specific ailment, you can try the free search tool on the website which you can find lower down on the right hand side.
If I’ve covered the topic in the past, you should see all the relevant articles miraculously appear before your eyes!
Technology. Wonderful!
