Friday Feature: The Wonders of Celery


My Grandma Thomas could make the best baked chicken with just salt and pepper, but her secret was adding the right amount of vegetable oil, onions and celery. When I first tried to duplicate her taste, I didn’t have celery. The chicken was good but wasn’t Grandma Thomas great. Next time I made sure to have celery. It gave the chicken that flavor boost it needed where I can now say my chicken tastes like my grandma’s. Even though celery gives my baked chicken that extra flavor I wouldn’t use celery for anything else. It would rot in my refrigerator, not knowing what else to do with it besides cutting the stalks into sticks to eat with blue cheese dressing. And that’s what you do at dinner parties or anywhere else where they serve a vegetable tray; I had no interest in buying molded cheese just to make my celery palatable so I could consume it before it went bad. But since being on a mostly raw plant-based food plan, celery has become a staple in my fridge.

Celery goes in all my green juices and smoothies (one of which I try to consume daily) and my raw burgers. In my opinion, celery tastes awful by itself but teamed with other foods, celery is a great enhancer. Who knows, but maybe because celery is so greatly enhanced with vital nutrient that it can greatly enhance other foods? Celery

Is high in:
Potassium
Magnesium
Manganese
Sodium (natural sodium that’s essential for our bodies)
Phosphorus
Iron
Calcium
Vitamins A, B-complex and C
Amino acids

Is a:
Diuretic
Laxative
Natural diet aid (curbs appetite)

Reduces:
Blood pressure

Helps:
Restore normal blood sugar levels
Prevent stomach and colon cancers
Treat respiratory issues, like asthma and bronchitis
Ease the pain from gout, rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatism
Stimulates sexual drive
Calm the nervous system

I hope you will try celery beyond the tiny pieces you put in soups and other food mixtures. Let it not only enhance the taste of your food but the level of your health and, thus, the level of your life.

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