Celery

Celery (Apium graveolens) is one of those vegetables that quietly does its job: it adds crunch to a salad, forms the backbone of countless soups and stocks, and makes a satisfying low-calorie snack. In the last few years it has also become the center of a viral wellness trend, with claims that drinking celery juice every morning can heal almost anything. This page takes celery seriously as a healthy food — and takes an honest, skeptical look at the bigger claims. The short version: celery is a genuinely good vegetable, the blood-pressure research is interesting but still preliminary, and the “miracle juice” promises are not backed by solid science.

Table of Contents

1. Nutritional Profile
2. Hydration, Fiber & Low-Calorie Eating
3. Blood Pressure — Phthalides
4. Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory Compounds
5. The Celery Juice Trend
6. How to Eat It
7. Considerations
8. Research Papers
9. Connections
10. Featured Videos

Nutritional Profile

Celery is mostly water — roughly 95% by weight — which is exactly why it is so low in calories. A large stalk has only about 6 calories, and a full cup of chopped celery comes in around 15–18 calories. It is not a nutritional powerhouse in the way that, say, kale or liver is, but it does contribute a useful mix of micronutrients for almost no caloric cost.

Per typical serving, celery provides:

• Vitamin K — relevant to blood clotting and bone health; celery is a modest but real source.
• Folate (vitamin B9) — important for cell division and especially for pregnancy.
• Potassium — an electrolyte that helps balance the effects of sodium and supports normal blood pressure.
• Fiber — the stringy structure you feel when you bite into a stalk; supports digestion and fullness.
• Small amounts of vitamin C, vitamin A (as carotenoids), and other minerals.

What makes celery interesting to researchers, though, is not its vitamins but its plant compounds. Celery is unusually rich in a family of aromatic molecules called phthalides — the most studied being 3-n-butylphthalide (NBP) — which are largely responsible for celery’s distinctive smell and are the focus of most of its blood-pressure research. It also contains the flavonoids apigenin and luteolin, plant antioxidants studied for anti-inflammatory activity. Keep in mind that the amounts of these compounds in a normal serving of celery are small; most laboratory studies use concentrated extracts, not raw stalks.

Hydration, Fiber & Low-Calorie Eating

This is where celery genuinely shines, and the science is simple and uncontroversial. Because it is about 95% water and contains fiber, celery is filling for almost no calories. It adds bulk, crunch, and volume to a meal or snack, which can help you feel satisfied without overeating. That makes it a practical tool for weight management and a pleasant way to nudge up your daily fluid intake.

Used as a vehicle, celery is even more useful: it turns a calorie-dense dip into a lighter snack, replaces crackers or chips, and adds texture to salads. Swapping a handful of chips for celery sticks is a small, sustainable change that adds up.

One popular claim does need correcting, though. Celery is often called a “negative-calorie food” — the idea being that chewing and digesting it burns more calories than the food contains. This is a myth. Digestion does use a little energy (the “thermic effect of food”), but it never comes close to outweighing even celery’s tiny calorie load. Celery is low-calorie, not calorie-negative. The honest framing is the more useful one anyway: it fills you up for very little, which is exactly what you want in a snack.

Blood Pressure — Phthalides

Celery has a long traditional reputation — especially in Chinese medicine — as a remedy for high blood pressure. Modern interest centers on the phthalides, particularly 3-n-butylphthalide (NBP), which in laboratory work appears to relax the smooth muscle in blood-vessel walls and may influence calcium handling and stress hormones in ways that could lower pressure.

So what does the evidence actually show? It is best described as promising but preliminary:

• Animal and mechanistic studies are the most consistent. Celery seed extracts have lowered blood pressure in rats, and isolated NBP shows blood-vessel-relaxing effects in the lab. This is where most of the supportive data lives.
• Human data exists but is limited. Small trials — typically using concentrated celery seed extract capsules rather than stalks or juice — have reported meaningful reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled nine randomized controlled trials (511 participants total) and found a statistically significant reduction in both systolic and diastolic pressure, but the effect was modest and the studies varied widely in dose, celery part used, and preparation.
• Large, rigorous, long-term trials do not yet exist. The human studies are mostly small, short, and heterogeneous, and the strongest signal comes from seed extracts, not from eating celery or drinking its juice.

The honest takeaway: this is a traditional use with a plausible mechanism and encouraging early human results — not a proven treatment. Celery is not a substitute for blood-pressure medication. If you take BP medication, do not stop or change it based on celery, and if you have hypertension, talk to your clinician before adding a concentrated celery seed extract, which is far more potent than the vegetable itself.

Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory Compounds

Celery’s two best-studied flavonoids, apigenin and luteolin, are antioxidants that show anti-inflammatory activity in laboratory studies. In cell and animal models they can dampen inflammatory signaling pathways and reduce oxidative stress, and apigenin in particular has been the subject of extensive preclinical research across many conditions.

This research is genuinely interesting, but it is important to be clear about its limits. Almost all of it is preclinical — done in test tubes and animals, often using purified compounds at doses far higher than you would get from eating celery. That work does not establish that eating celery treats or prevents any specific human disease. The reasonable conclusion is the modest one: celery contains beneficial plant compounds and fits naturally into an anti-inflammatory, vegetable-rich eating pattern. Treat the lab findings as a reason to enjoy celery as part of a varied diet, not as evidence for a cure.

The Celery Juice Trend — an Honest Look

Over the past several years, celery juice has been promoted as a near-miraculous morning ritual — with claims that drinking 16 ounces on an empty stomach can “detox” the body, heal chronic illnesses, clear skin, fix digestion, and more. These claims went viral on social media, but they did not come from clinical research.

Here is the honest assessment:

• There is no good clinical evidence that celery juice detoxifies the body, cures chronic disease, or has any special healing power beyond what you would expect from a low-calorie vegetable juice. Your liver and kidneys already handle “detoxification”; no drink is required to assist them.
• Juicing removes the fiber. One of celery’s best features is its fiber, and juicing strains most of it out. You are left with celery water, some vitamins and minerals, and the plant compounds — minus the fullness and digestive benefit that the whole vegetable provides.
• It is not harmful in moderation — it is just hydrating, lightly nutritious vegetable juice. The problem is not the juice itself; it is the promises attached to it. Replacing real medical care, or a balanced diet, with celery juice is where the trend becomes a genuine risk.

The bottom line: celery is a healthy vegetable, and if you enjoy the juice, there is no harm in a glass. But the “cures everything” claims are unsupported by evidence, and whole celery — fiber and all — is the better choice nutritionally. For more on the specific health claims made about the juice, see our dedicated Celery Juice page.

How to Eat It

The good news is that celery is cheap, versatile, and easy to use in all its forms.

• Raw. The classic crunchy snack. Pair celery sticks with healthier dips — hummus, plain Greek yogurt, guacamole, or a little nut butter — rather than heavy ranch. Chop it into salads, tuna or chicken salad, and grain bowls for texture.
• Cooked. Celery is a cornerstone of cooking. Along with onion and carrot it forms the classic mirepoix, the aromatic base for soups, stews, sauces, and stocks. Cooking mellows its flavor and lets it blend into a dish. Diced celery also adds depth to stuffings, braises, and stir-fries.
• Juiced. Perfectly fine if you enjoy it — just remember that whole celery keeps the fiber that juicing removes, so blending (which retains the pulp) is nutritionally better than straining if you want a drink.

Buying and storing: Choose firm, crisp stalks with fresh green leaves; limp or rubbery celery is past its prime. Store it in the refrigerator — wrapping the bunch in foil or keeping it in water can help it stay crisp longer. If stalks go slightly limp, a soak in cold water often revives them.

Considerations

Celery is safe for most people as a food, but there are a few real things worth knowing.

• Allergy — can be serious. Celery is a recognized cause of food allergy, and reactions can be severe, including anaphylaxis. It is significant enough that the European Union lists celery as one of its labeled major allergens (foods that must be declared on packaging). Reactions can range from mouth itching (oral allergy syndrome) to hives and, in some people, life-threatening anaphylaxis — and celery allergy is sometimes linked to pollen allergies (such as mugwort). If you have a known celery allergy, read labels carefully, since it hides in stocks, spice blends, and prepared foods.
• Photosensitivity (psoralens). Celery naturally contains psoralens (furanocoumarins), compounds that can make skin more sensitive to sunlight. In practice this is mainly a concern for farm and food-handling workers with heavy, repeated skin contact, or with very large intakes — not for normal dietary amounts.
• Pesticide residues. Celery regularly appears on the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list of produce with higher pesticide residues. This is not a reason to avoid it — the health benefits of eating vegetables outweigh this concern — but it is a sensible reason to wash celery well, and to choose organic if that matters to you and fits your budget.
• Sodium and nitrates. Celery naturally contains some sodium and nitrates. The amounts are not a problem for most people, but it is worth knowing if you are on a very strict low-sodium diet. (Celery juice and celery powder are sometimes used as “natural” curing agents in processed meats precisely because of their nitrate content.)

Research Papers

Note that the strongest blood-pressure data come from concentrated celery seed extract in small human trials, with mechanism supported largely by animal studies; the antioxidant/anti-inflammatory work on apigenin is mostly preclinical; and no high-quality evidence supports the “celery juice cures disease” claims.

1. Shayani Rad M, Moohebati M, Mohajeri SA. Effect of celery (Apium graveolens) seed extract on hypertension: a randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over clinical trial. Phytother Res. 2022;36(7):2889–2907. doi:10.1002/ptr.7469 — A small (n=52) but well-designed human trial in which celery seed extract capsules significantly lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
2. Liu D, Zhao H, Xu H, Hu J. Effects of celery (Apium graveolens) on blood pressure, glycemic and lipid profile in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Front Nutr. 2025;12:1597680. doi:10.3389/fnut.2025.1597680 — Pooling 9 RCTs (511 participants), celery produced statistically significant but modest reductions in blood pressure; the authors caution that trials varied widely in dose and preparation.
3. Alobaidi S, Saleh E. Antihypertensive property of celery: a narrative review on current knowledge. Int J Food Sci. 2024;2024:9792556. doi:10.1155/2024/9792556 — A useful overview concluding the human evidence is encouraging but preliminary, limited by small sizes and inconsistent doses/extracts.
4. Moghadam MH, Imenshahidi M, Mohajeri SA. Antihypertensive effect of celery seed on rat blood pressure in chronic administration. J Med Food. 2013;16(6):558–563. doi:10.1089/jmf.2012.2664 — An animal study showing celery seed extract lowered blood pressure in hypertensive rats — representative of the animal/mechanistic evidence behind the phthalide hypothesis.
5. Tan TYC, Lim XY, Norahmad NA, et al. Neurological applications of celery (Apium graveolens): a scoping review. Molecules. 2023;28(15):5824. doi:10.3390/molecules28155824 — Maps the research on celery and its phthalide 3-n-butylphthalide (NBP), showing how much of the work remains preclinical.
6. Allemailem KS, Almatroudi A, Alharbi HOA, et al. Apigenin: a bioflavonoid with a promising role in disease prevention and treatment. Biomedicines. 2024;12(6):1353. doi:10.3390/biomedicines12061353 — Reviews the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of apigenin (found in celery) — promising biology that is still largely laboratory-based.
7. Kosztulska B, Bartuzi Z, Ukleja-Sokołowska N. Current state of celery allergy: is discovering Api g 7 a milestone in diagnosing celeriac-allergic patients? Int J Mol Sci. 2025;26(12):5840. doi:10.3390/ijms26125840 — Confirms celery as a clinically important allergen capable of causing severe reactions including anaphylaxis.

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Connections

• Celery Juice
• Onions
• Broccoli
• All Foods

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