Day 12- Celery

"Many kids can tell you about drugs but do not know what celery tastes like."   

- Jamie Oliver-

Growing up I  absolutely hated celery. I remember when I would go to my grandparents house and my nanna would always make this vegetable soup filled with celery. I detested it.  My mum used to always put celery in our salads and I thought it was the most awful thing. I remember one day watching my little cousin eat a stalk of celery and I thought there surely must have been something wrong with her! Who would voluntarily eat such a detestable vegetable? 

How things have changed! In the past year I have learnt to love celery and to appreciate this vegetable in it's fullest. I find it refreshing and I especially love crunching on it. Today I added celery in my juice and I found that it added an extra dimension to the flavour of my juice.

Facts you might not know about celery:
- Years and years and years ago celery was first used as medicine! It wasn't until the last century or so that people started using it for food!
- The World's Healthiest Foods says that the Ancient Greeks used the leaves as laurels to decorate their athletes!

Health benefits of juice: (This has been sourced from The World's Healthiest Foods)
- It is very rich in Vitamin C ! No wonder celery was once used in medicine. Vitamin C helps to support the immune system. So if you feel like you have a cold coming on, start eating your celery! You will probably find that colds are better prevented, or if you do get a cold, the symptoms won't be as harsh.
- Because it is so rich in Vitamin C, Celery is known as an anti-inflammatory food. This is great if you have chronic pain or something like arthritis.
- Celery helps promote your Cardiovascular health. It helps prevent stroke, heart disease and cancer! Wow!
- Reduces blood pressure
- Lowers cholesterol
- Promotes optimal health! Celery contains compounds called coumarins that help prevent free radicals from damaging cells, thus decreasing the mutations that increase the potential for cells to become cancerous. Coumarins also enhance the activity of certain white blood cells, immune defenders that target and eliminate potentially harmful cells, including cancer cells. In addition, compounds in celery called acetylenics have been shown to stop the growth of tumor cells.


So eat more celery! 


My Day:


Breakfast: Poached eggs, avocado, sauteed red pepper, onion, mushroom and tomato.  Celery/Apple/Orange juice

Lunch: Banana/pineapple/apple/blueberry/grapes smoothy

Dinner: Banana smoothy

Snacks: Kale chips, Coconut chocolate balls (Earth diet style!), cashews, pineapple, baby mandarins, Celery

Exercise: Watched tv ;)