By Tess Lampe
Celery
A vegetable that most people had as a kid accompanied by peanut butter, right? Little do most people know that the vegetable that is celery is actually one of the healthiest you can have, and that is true for many reasons. Not only is celery filled with nutrients, it also has a very miniscule amount of calories, it often benefits a select few of the inner systems of your body, and most surprisingly, celery is used in pain-relieving medicine quite often. To say the least, it is a vegetable that the common people forgot about, but nutritionists have always kept it on their lists of healthy snacks.
Celery is a vegetable that belongs to the plant family of Apiaceae, which usually consists of aromantic flowering plants. Other plants that are in this family include the previously mentioned celery, carrots, parsley, and umbellifers. An umbellifer is essentially a commonly used umbrella term for flowering plants that are apart of the Apiaceae family. When it comes to umbellifers, pollinators are closely tied to them because of the great attraction they have towards the abundant amount of nutrients. The pollinators that tend to attract themselves towards the umbellifers are hoverflies, bees, butterflies, and other flies.
Celery is known for being low in calories and very rich in nutrients and health benefits, which is why many people include it in their diets. Not only does this certain vegetable help to improve many bodily systems like the digestive and cardiovascular system, the seeds in celery are also used in many pain-relieving medicines. It can also be served in many ways and it often withholds its nutrients through most of those processes. Based on a study from the journal LTW - Food and Science Technology, when celery is steamed, about 83-99% of the antioxidants - compounds in food and in your body that defend cells from anything harmful - stay in the vegetable. However, when blanched or boiled, about 38-41% of the antioxidants within the vegetable are lost.
Even though celery is full of nutrients, it isn’t quite packed full with a certain mineral. Nutritionist Megan Ware says that “Since celery is mostly made of water, it is not particularly high in any vitamin or mineral.” Despite this fact, there is actually a moderate amount of vitamin K in celery (30% in one cup). Vitamin K is a vitamin that mainly focuses on regulating blood calcium levels and bone metabolism, which can also be related to blood clotting.
Health benefits of celery can include weight loss, anti-inflammatory effects, hydration, being a remedy for heartburn, helps lower cholesterol and blood pressure, regulates bowel and digestive movements, and the antioxidants and variety of nutrients can help with reducing cancer risk. Despite the many benefits, there are a few risks to eating too much celery. It has a high sodium/salt level, which can be a danger or worry to some under certain circumstances. Additionally, because of the low amount of calories in celery, it could cause malnutrition if eaten too much. Malnutrition, although seeming ironic when talking about this specific vegetable based on previous statements, is when the body does not receive proper nutrition from not eating enough of the right foods, not being able to properly digest, or not eating enough in general.
Other health concerns with celery may be allergies, interference with thyroid functions when eaten in large quantities, and temporarily causing skin to be more sensitive to UV rays if applied directly to the skin.
Nevertheless, as long as celery and many other vegetables from the Apiaceae family are used and eaten properly and used in each individual’s desired diet in the correct way, celery can be a great food with many health benefits that could help many who need it.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/270678.phphttps://www.livescience.com/50640-celery-nutrition.htmlhttps://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/plants-with-umbellifer-flowers/https://www.pollinator.org/pollinators
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