Drinking cucumber celery juice can be an easy and quick way to boost your veggie intake and quench your thirst at the same time. Even if you don't like the taste of either vegetable, ingesting the vitamins and minerals in juice form provides most of the nutrients you get in the food versions.
The fiber content of juice isn't quite as much as that of whole celery and cucumber. That's because juicing can remove some of the skin and other fibrous components of the veggies. You'll still get most of the minerals and vitamins, however.
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Celery and cucumber juice can provide vitamins A and K, potassium, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents and can even give you a boost of energy. While you may not get quite as much fiber as you do from eating the whole vegetables, you'll still get many of the same health benefits.
Manganese Aids Bodily Functions
Cucumber and celery, whether eaten whole or juiced whole, boosts your manganese intake. Why is that important? Manganese activates proteins your body needs to form blood clots and to synthesize hormones essential for reproductive health.
Manganese also keeps your connective tissue strong. Just over a cup of celery has 0.1 milligrams of manganese, which makes up 6 percent of the recommended daily intakes for adults, respectively. One 8 1/4-inch cucumber contains 0.2 milligrams of manganese per cup, which is 12 percent of the recommended daily intake.
Benefits From Magnesium and Potassium
Cucumber skin is rich in magnesium. Celery also contains a good deal of magnesium. Magnesium helps regulate blood pressure, blood sugar and muscle and nerve function. Magnesium is one of those minerals best consumed from food, so celery and cucumber juice is a good way to get this mineral.
Cucumber skin and celery also contain some potassium. Potassium, along with magnesium, is a good source of electrolytes, which helps the body regulate many bodily functions. Cucumber and celery juice also contains far less sugar than many electrolyte replacement drinks on the market. Celery by itself can boost endurance and enhance strength training, along with containing anti-inflammatory substances.
Rich in Vitamin C
Celery juice is high in vitamin C and rich with nutrients that may lower cholesterol and blood pressure, say the experts at Michigan State University Extension. Cucumber also contains vitamin C. Vitamin C helps protect against immune system deficiencies, cardiovascular disease, prenatal health problems, eye disease and skin wrinkling.
Full of Essential Vitamin A
A cucumber and celery juice recipe will also provide you with vitamin A, or retinol. The National Institutes of Health says vitamin A helps newborn cells develop into functional tissue, and it promotes healthy vision. Vitamin A is essential for expectant mothers because it aids fetal growth.
Just over a cup of celery offers 494 IU, or 10 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A for adults. A cucumber that's 8 1/4 inches contains 316 IU, or 6 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin A for adults.
Contains Healing Vitamin K
Celery in a celery and cucumber juice recipe also provides vitamin K, which helps with blood clotting. This helps the body heal after an injury because your body relies on blood clots to physically block blood flow out of a wound. Your body also needs vitamin K for new bone tissue growth, and low vitamin K levels might increase your risk of osteoporosis.
A 110 milligram serving of celery, or just over 1 cup chopped, contains 32.2 micrograms or 40 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin K for adults. One 8 1/4-inch cucumber provides 49.4 micrograms, or 62 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin K for adults.
Reduces Inflammation, Blood Pressure
Flavonoids in cucumber and celery juice are rich in antioxidants and help the body fight inflammation, which can, in turn help fight chronic disease. The Cleveland Clinic says that whole celery helps to reduce blood pressure.
A Celery and Cucumber Juice Recipe
Juice is at its most nutritious shortly after chopping, so keep vegetables on hand so you can throw in some celery and cucumber for a quick breakfast drink. It's best to make your own celery and cucumber juice recipe using a juicer, combining chunks of celery and cucumber with peel. The nutrients are strongest when the juice is fresh.
Squeeze some lemon if you want a little different flavor. Commercial drinks may have added sugar, which gives you empty calories. Even if made with the juice of other fruits, that sugar is treated by your body as if it were added sugar, the same as if in soda. If you'd like to add in other commercial drinks with no added sugar, those drinks can usually be trusted.
- Green Juice: Not as Healthy as You Think
- The Epoch Times: Eleven Amazing Health Benefits of Cucumber — Backed by Science
- MSN.com: Should You Drink Celery Juice? A Nutritionist Weighs in on Busy Phillipps' New Go-To
- MSU Extension: Low Carb Vegetables are Good for Everybody, Especially Those Needing to Count Carbs
- USDA National Nutrient Database: Celery, Raw
- USDA National Nutrient Database: Cucumber, With Peel, Raw
- USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods
- The Cleveland Clinic: Celery May Help Bring Your High Blood Pressure Down
- Harvard Health Letter: Key Minerals to Help Control Blood Pressure
- The Health Beat: Top 11 Fruits and Vegetables High in Electrolytes
- Web MD: The Benefits of Vitamin C
- Self Nutrition Data: Celery, Raw: One NLEA Serving
- Self Nutrition Data: Cucumber, Raw: One Cucumber
- Oxford Academic: Advances in Nutrition: Manganese