The Truth About the Celery Diet
If you’ve done any research on popular diets lately, you might have come across something known as the “celery diet.” So how does it work, and more importantly, does it work?
Celery is commonly referred as a “negative calorie food.” This does not mean that celery does not contain any calories, but rather that eating the celery itself burns off more calories than the food actually has to start with. The idea behind the celery diet is that if you eat a lot of celery, then you can feel full and not deprive yourself of food, yet still manage to burn off the calories that you are consuming.
Unfortunately, because eating celery burns only a small amount of calories, and celery has an even smaller amount of calories to begin with, you would have to virtually eat thousands of celery stalks before you were able to burn off any stored fat that already existed. In essence, you would be burning off the food that you were eating, but not the fat that you had already amassed.
What the celery diet can do, however, is help you get rid of water weight, or bloating. Basically, it’s a lot like fasting. By eating celery and only drinking water for 5 days, you might lose 5-10 pounds, but this would not be stored fat that you are losing. The same could be accomplished with many other types of fasts.
The fact is, celery is made up mostly of water, much like watermelon. A cup of celery has only around 16 calories and less than 1 gram of protein. Therefore, eating several cups of celery per day on the celery diet would not be unlike going on a water fast.
To keep up the celery diet and to maintain energy, many people add peanut butter to the celery in order to provide their bodies with protein. In order to get the recommended 1200 calories per day, you would need to eat 6 cups of celery and 12 spoons of peanut butter per day, which might be a little much for people.
It is also important to remember that since the weight you are losing is going to be predominantly water weight, it is not sustainable and you will more than likely put it back on when you begin eating regular food again.
This is not to say, of course, that adding celery to your diet in general is a bad idea. In fact, although it has few vitamins and minerals, it does contain Pthalides which can help control blood pressure.
Plus, if you are already on a diet, then adding celery to it can help you feel full without adding a lot of calories. Adding the peanut butter to the celery keeps the calories down, as well as adds protein and flavor, and is a recommended snack by many diets, including the popular South Beach Diet.
Drinking celery juice is also thought to be beneficial in reducing the risk of developing gall stones and kidney stones. Some people use it as a relaxant, too, before going to bed at night.
Although the celery diet might not be the miracle diet that some claim it to be, celery is still a vegetable that has many uses and can definitely be incorporated into an existing diet. However, it is important to remember that eating only one type of food over a long period of time, without taking vitamin supplements, can be dangerous to your overall health. In addition, although crash diets might help you lose an initial 5-10 pounds, more than likely those pounds are going to be gained again when you start introducing other foods back into your system.