Lose Weight With Celery
Celery is one of those salads we use in cooking and eat raw occasionally but if we realised just how fantastic celery is for losing weight we would include it in all our recipes! Celery is crispy and tasty and refreshing and now we know it is also an important food for speeding up the metabolism and can help us shed those excess pounds.
Celery is incredibly low in calories with just 16 calories per 100 grams, so it is an excellent food for snacking on. It is also highly satiating, which means it keeps us feeling full for longer, which can only be a good thing when trying to cut calories and lose weight. Of course in addition to its great weight loss benefits, celery is also packed full of vitamins, minerals and fibre, while it has a high water content too which helps keep our bodies hydrated.
Reduce toxins with celery
The high water content of celery means it hydrates and cleanses the body, reducing toxins and speeding the metabolism. At 95% water, this powerful salad vegetable also improves kidney and digestive function and improves circulation. Not only are toxins reduced to improve general bodily heath, celery also provides us with many essential vitamins including B1, B2 and B6, along with vital minerals potassium and sodium.
Use celery to lose weight
Losing weight is as simple as consuming fewer calories than we expend. However, in practice it is often a lot harder than that. Often we can exercise and eat a good diet and still carry excess fat, however, by including plenty of celery in our diets we can make use of its cleansing and satiating properties to give our diet a power boost. The diuretic function of celery also acts as a cleansing agent to help detoxify the system and eliminate excess fats stored around organs.
Celery juices and soups
Celery makes a tasty addition to any salad and eating it raw is a great way to digest its high fibre content. However, even if you do not particularly like the taste of celery you can still consume it by drinking it as a juice or including it in a smoothie. Celery is best eaten this way on an empty stomach so the body can digest the goodness quickly without being hampered by the digestion of other foods. A good recipe for a potent celery juice is to combine it with pineapple and cucumber and mix together in a blender. This creates a highly refreshing juice with strong anti-oxidant properties, helping us shed excess pounds.
Celery soup is another option for eating celery later in the day as a cooked food. This will keep you full and burn fat, while detoxifying the body. An excellent celery soup can be made using onion, pepper, vegetable stock, olive oil and cornflower. Simply mix these ingredients together in a pan on the hob and add diced celery for a chunky soup or blend the celery for a smooth consommé. Herbs can also be added to give the soup a richer flavour and increase the health benefits; good options for addition herbs are bay, thyme or basil.
Celery smoothies
Smoothies are a wonderful way of ingesting celery as a juice but with an extra kick. Smoothies can also help you feel full for longer than a juice, due to the greater level of viscosity. Simply mix celery with kiwi and orange then add a pinch of parsley and a small amount of honey to make a refreshing, delicious smoothie that is perfect for drinking before dinner or as a snack on its own in the middle of the afternoon. Simply cut all the ingredients into small pieces and squeeze the juice out of the oranges then blend all this together to create a smooth mixture. The honey works as a sweetener to give it an extra softness as alone this smoothie can be quite tart, though very refreshing.
All of these celery recipe ideas are excellent for losing weight as the celery is highly satiating, helps eliminate toxins from the body, speeds up the metabolic rate, reduces fluid retention and helps burn fat. These functions give celery its reputation as a fat busting salad and explain why celery will help you lose weight.
