If you are health-conscious and always on the lookout for the next superfood you might have already tried celery juice. It is literally all the rage right now, and many say with good reason.
As far as I’m concerned, if it can deliver even half its promises, celery juice could be immensely beneficial, especially for gut health. Reason why I’m giving this miracle drink a second try, but this time I intend to stick to it daily and indefinitely.
THE CELERY JUICE MOVEMENT
It seems a little odd that something so simple and ubiquitous as celery has gained so much momentum lately. So much so it’s become a global movement, apparently. Even my sister-in-law who lives across the ocean in Belgrade is now drinking celery juice every morning on an empty stomach. Not to mention all the celebrities jumping on the celery juice bandwagon.
Unlike other trendy superfoods, celery has been in my fridge, and probably everyone else’s, for as long as I can remember. Nothing rare or exotic about this ingredient. It’s not like spirulina, chlorella, wheatgrass, açaì or maca of which I ignored the existence when I was growing up. It’s not sourced in some remote location deep in the Amazon jungle or the volcanic soil of Mount Kilimanjaro. No ancient health pedigree either, like in the case of honey. Basically, no one before Anthony Williams, a.k.a. Medical Medium, has ever claimed that celery, of all things, holds the secret to perfect health.
TOP 10 BENEFITS
So, what are its benefits exactly? The list is long, as this vegetable does indeed contain many beneficial nutrients. But these are supposedly 10 of the most essential life-changing virtues of drinking celery juice every day:
- Fights Autoimmune Diseases
- Eliminates Bad Gut Bacteria
- Lowers Inflammation
- Helps Fight Infections
- Eliminates Toxins
- Helps Prevent Ulcers
- Promotes Liver Health
- Promotes Weight Loss
- Boosts Digestion and Reduces Bloating
- Protects from Cancer
HOW DOES IT WORK?
All those incredible benefits and all in one simple natural ingredient. Amazing, right? But how can plain celery juice do all that? Basically, how does it work once it’s inside our bodies?
According to Anthony Williams (a.k.a. Medical Medium), who has written a whole book about this very juice, in order for it to work and reach all the right tissue and organs, it needs to be ingested this way:
- a minimum of 16 oz. daily to start (less than that will not be enough to travel through the body and reach all the tissue, glands, and organs it needs to work on). Ideally, the amount will be increased to 32 oz. a day.
- on a completely empty stomach (don’t even take a sip of water before drinking CJ in the morning)
- entirely by itself (don’t add anything to it, not even water!)
- wait 15-30 minutes after drinking the juice before having breakfast
Eating celery will not have the same effect, Williams says, its incredible power can only be unleashed by juicing it. In order to work, it needs to be pure, unobstructed and unadulterated. Anything you might add to it, even the healthiest of ingredients like ginger, would obstruct and create obstacles to its path and efficacy. Accurate or not, that is the theory behind the importance of this particular juice.
Once ingested, it needs some time to perform its magic (15-30 minutes). As per Williams and his book, the goodness of this juice goes beyond its well-known nutrients, such as antioxidants, vitamin K, calcium, magnesium, and other minerals. The true magic is found in one specific element.
THE SECRET OF CELERY JUICE
According to Medical Medium, the secret of celery juice lies in the “undiscovered sodium cluster salts” it contains. These salts allegedly can reverse illness, including chronic illness. This discovery is the main reason why this drink is so powerful and why Medical Medium insists on the miraculous powers of celery juice.
These salts are supposedly responsible for breaking down and flushing out pathogens. That is how this juice helps the body get rid of bad gut bacteria, fight autoimmune diseases, detox the liver, fight acne, SIBO, the shingles virus… and more.
Skeptics are not buying this claim. They agree that celery is nutrient-dense and hypocaloric, which is why it’s so great for weight loss. They also agree and confirm that it’s overall really good for you but not necessarily juiced (many say that wasting the fiber is actually counterproductive). However, they do not believe that it’s a cure-all elixir with the unprecedented power to reverse illness all by itself.
HOT TO MAKE CELERY JUICE
As you already know, there is only one ingredient in this juice. Very simple, but still you need to keep in mind a couple of things.
- Buy organic celery if possible. This is always important with any produce. In the case of celery, even more important because it’s a member of the “Dirty Dozen List”, which includes the top 12 conventional fruits and vegetables hit by the highest levels of pesticides.
- If you don’t find organic celery, or if it is too expensive for your budget, buy conventional. The virtues of the nutrients will still outweigh the toxins of the pesticides. Besides, you can decrease the harmful effects by washing the celery thoroughly and adding one of the following steps:
-
- Wash the celery in a bowl with water and a drop of natural no-fragrance dish soap. Rinse really well before juicing. Or…
- Wash the celery in a bowl with water and one tablespoon of baking soda. Rinse really well before juicing.
- It takes 1 large bunch of celery for 16 oz. of juice. Shop accordingly.
- Ready. Set. Juice. You’re good to go!
TIPS FOR A SMOOTH CELERY JUICE DAILY ROUTINE
Tip #1: Wash the celery the night before. It will make juicing first thing in the morning so much easier and quicker.
Tip #2: If you have a very tight schedule, you can make the juice the night before. It’s not ideal, but a sealed mason jar of juice in the fridge overnight should still bring you all the benefits of fresh juice.
Tip #3: Get a fast juicer that is easy to use. This will increase your chances to stick to this routine. I know I’m supposed to say that a healthy juice must be extracted with a cold press juicer, or nothing at all. Once upon a time, I had a cold press juicer, so I’m familiar with how slow the process can be. I even had to chop the vegetables beforehand and feed the juicer like it was a baby bird. And then the clean-up was quite a pain as well. That resulted in me dreading the juicing process like it was a heavy chore. Eventually, I started doing it less and less until I almost stopped altogether. So, a couple of years ago I decided to switch to something user-friendly that would allow me to juice more often and enthusiastically.
And… this is my juicer now! It’s not cold press, but supposedly it has cold spin technology that does not increase the temperature significantly. That means that you still get pure enough, raw enough, unadulterated juice. That’s all good, but the main reason why I love this appliance so much is that it has a wide mouth, and I can fit in whole beets, whole apples, whole lemons, huge carrots… No more chopping and feeding. And the clean-up is very quick and easy. It takes me seconds to make a whole carafe of juice. The only prepping I have is washing the food. Maybe my juicer is not the perfect one, at least according to the experts and juice purists, but I think sometimes it’s better done than perfect. Watch how efficient it is:
CELERY JUICE CHALLENGE
So, is it true what Medical Medium claims? Does this miracle require faith or can it be scientifically verified? I honestly don’t know, but I am more than willing to approach this wellness trend with an open mind and a grain of salt. Actually, hold the salt because not even salt can be added to this juice, or it won’t work 😮
I’m determined to give the popular Celery Juice Challenge a real and committed try. I have nothing to lose but toxins and diseases. Let me know if you want to join me in the comments below. I started three days ago and have no intention of stopping any time soon. I’m already building up my intake to 32 oz. a day 💪like a pro.
Bottoms up. To our gut health!
Celery Juice
Ingredients
- 1 bunch celery large
Instructions
- wash celery thoroughly
- use a juicer to extract the juice of the celery
- drink immediately
Nutrition
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great read! thanks for all the tips. did it end up helping you at all? i have sibo and want to see if it will help the bloating!
Hi Amber!
Thank you 🙏🏻 Yes, absolutely, reducing sugar, even the natural “healthy” kind, has helped immensely with my SIBO. It’s one of the fundamental steps as we try not to feed the bad guys. All the other suggestions have also helped a lot, and I am keeping it all up as part of my personal Autoimmune Protocol with consistent, long-term results. In the next week or 2, I will write a post to include more steps that have really worked to fix my bloating, gas and even some scary rashes that doctors had no solution for. Stay tuned, it will be a great read full of practical tips.