28 Days of Celery: The Results

There has been a significant amount of talk recently based around the idea of starting each day with celery juice. It is something that was hugely popularised by the Medical Medium who claims this green liquid is literally the panacea for all things.

Now from my viewpoint nothing in isolation will offer the answer to all our health questions, but I also see no issue in the addition of something bursting with micronutrients & electrolytes first thing in the morning. So it was with this in mind that I decided to put it to the test, because how could I really know the benefits/pitfalls & be able to hold my own in a conversation without having tried it myself.

And so my #28daysofcelery challenge was born.

Yep I dived on in on my Instagram stories & declared myself a player for the month of November & invited any & everyone to join me in my experiment (I was actually astonished at how many took me up on it!)

So what were the rules?

• Every morning for 28 days we would start our day with 350-400ml pure cold pressed organic celery juice, this could be home juiced with a juicer, or the head blended before being passed through muslin/a nut milk bag to separate the pulp OR you could buy from a juice bar as long as they made it freshly for you.
• That was it – no other alterations to our diets, lifestyles or regimes bar the usual day to day fluctuations.

So what happens … well let’s see …

WEEK 1

The first few days I dived in with great gusto, I had my juicer down on the counter & come 6am there would be celery leaves flying around the place as I over excitedly got to work. In terms of the amount of celery needed 1 head would do for the day.

Days 1-3 I wasn’t quite sure about in terms of my body’s response, I had kind of assumed that I wouldn’t notice much as I drink mixed green juices regularly & follow a pretty great diet BUT in those first few days I felt I became slightly gassy. This passed after Day 4 though.

Towards the end of the week I also went into an infrared sauna & after this point I felt my skin (usually pretty clear) became slightly spotty – now both the celery juice & the sauna will have stimulated my internal detoxification pathways & 1 of the primary routes to get those toxins out of the body is via the skin so this would totally make sense. Additionally I have psoriasis & had been experiencing a pretty nasty (& very unusual flare) recently – another reason I decided to do this at this point as 1 of the top claims for the celery juice inclusion is skin support. I can’t say I noticed an improvement here.

From a general standpoint though I really enjoyed waking up & having the juice, it was super refreshing (I love celery) & the process fitted in quite easily.

WEEK 2

Then I got REALLY busy with work – I mean super busy, out of bed, into my inbox & out of the door kind of manic which meant my mornings started to get a little overly frantic with the prepping & washing up. So I started juicing a couple of heads at a time in the evening, popping half into a container & straight into the freezer for the day after next & having my morning 1 ready to go for when I woke up. I decided the relative decrease in nutrient content overnight was better than not having it at all (also as I had instigated the challenge I couldn’t quit!) I also occasionally dived into somewhere like Planet Organic & bought 1 when I needed to.

The main issue here for me though became breakfast – my usual routine would be to have a light green smoothie with matcha, collagen & spices like turmeric before heading to the gym/into clinic, then having a more substantial breakfast mid-morning however with the juice first this became too much fluid & so I found I needed to have my eggs etc earlier because I hadn’t had my smoothie. After a couple of days of slightly overly hungry 10am sessions I simply tweaked my schedule about a bit & all was well.

In terms of benefits by this point my skin had cleared, my tummy had settled & I generally felt pretty great, whether or not this was down to the celery was yet to be determined.

WEEKS 3-4

I lump these together as there were no great discernible differences between them. By this point I was into my routine & had naturally incorporated the juice into my day. In terms of my consumption of celery I think I had begun to confuse my local shopkeepers as I would tend to dive in in a flurry of slightly maniacal, end-of-the-day whirl windedness & proceed to buy nothing else except 4-5 heads of organic celery, I think perhaps they thought I’d lost my mind.

But I knew I hadn’t. I don’t think.

Similarly I was back to my usual state of affairs – my energy was good, I had picked up a bit of a cold but nothing to stop me from  carrying on with my usual routine, I had had a couple of instances of slight gassiness again but that could be attributed to my general high consumption of fibrous vegetables & I’d had no re-breakouts of my skin. Sadly however my psoriasis persisted which is what I’d really hoped for some assistance with.

CONCLUSIONS

So what were my closing thoughts at the end of the 28 days?

Well I REALLY like celery juice – I mean I really do! I like the taste, I think it’s incredible refreshing, as a single juice if you buy 1 when you’re out & about it is a fraction of the cost of freshly pressed veggie juice, I love it after exercise as a natural electrolyte boost & yes generally I will continue to drink it.

In terms of the claims made about it however I am not so sure, but then as I began by saying I live an almost overly ‘clean’ lifestyle already so perhaps in my case I am not the ideal candidate to try it. Someone else though who doesn’t already incorporate about 15 portions of veg a day, eats refined sugar, gluten, dairy &/or non-organic produce might find this inclusion to be world changing. I just don’t know.

This is not to lambast all the positives however – juicing vegetables does mean we can take in huge quantities of the fantastic nutrients they contain in the absence of fibre, & celery is an exceptional source of certain anti-ageing antioxidants which we can all benefit from.

So yes I can’t say I was blown away by ground breaking changes from my experiences with celery juice but on the other hand I have most certainly re-affirmed a loving bond with this vegetable & you can definitely expect to see me sipping on a frothy cup full in future.

I would love to know if any of you have experimented or had different experiences so please do be in touch in the comments or by email.

With healthy wishes,

Phoebe x