Celery is the bright green, attention-grabbing juice you’ve probably seen on at least one nutrition, fitness, or skincare influencer’s Instagram page.
And besides being aesthetically pleasing, celery is also delicious, super-hydrating, and, as it turns out, beneficial for common health and skin concerns such as slow metabolism and inflammatory conditions such as acne.
Therefore, in this article, I will talk about how celery can help clear acne, what makes celery so effective, and advise on some potential side effects you need to know before making celery juice a part of your daily routine.
Now, let’s talk about the connection between celery and clear skin.
Celery is Low in Sugar
Celery juice is low in sugar and makes a suitable replacement for sugary beverages like soda, coffee, and energy drinks.
This is important because research suggests that acne could be influenced or exacerbated by a high glycemic diet.
A high glycemic diet can cause spikes of hormones like insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which over time increases inflammation throughout the body and leads to breakouts.
Therefore, if you replace sugary beverages with celery juice, you may thus see a decrease in inflammatory acne due to less sugar and more fiber in your diet.
Additionally, if you have been thinking of changing your diet to clear up your acne but don’t really know where to start, make sure to check out Good Glow’s Clear Skin Resource Kit, which consists of over 250 pages of information that will help you get started on a meticulously thought-out program for clearing acne.
Celery is Rich in Fibers
Celery is a good source of both soluble and insoluble fibers. This means that celery can help with two different types of acne.
The insoluble fibers in celery can help with constipation, which is a common side effect of taking certain acne medications like isotretinoin (Accutane.)
And the soluble fibers found in celery also help regulate digestion by binding to excess toxins and waste products in the gut and ushering them out of the body before they have a chance to cause inflammation.
Additionally, celery’s fiber content helps keep you feeling satiated, which could lead to eating less high-glycemic foods that keep you full for longer but might be triggering your breakouts.
Celery is Rich in Essential Vitamins and Minerals
Celery is a good source of essential vitamins and minerals such as zinc, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and vitamin A.
All of these are essential components for healthy and clear skin.
For example, zinc is the chief anti-inflammatory component in the body that can help soothe and heal the skin.
It has been observed that burn patients have drastically reduced zinc levels in the body and that as soon as zinc is implemented through diet, the injuries tend to heal faster.
Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps protect the skin from sun damage and environmental stressors that can lead to premature aging, cell degradation, inflammation, and acne breakouts.
Potassium regulates blood pressure and prevents water retention, thus relieving inflammation in the skin and body.
Magnesium supports healthy nerve function and reduces inflammation throughout the body – two things that are beneficial when trying to clear up deeply inflamed cystic acne.
Calcium aids in collagen production, which keeps your skin looking firm, plump, and elastic, but it also helps fill up the depressed scarring caused by acne.
Lastly, vitamin A is an essential nutrient for maintaining healthy skin cells.
It helps speed up cellular turnover, which prevents clogged pores and breakouts by sloughing off excess dead skin cells faster from the skin’s surface.
A lack of vitamin A can lead to dry, dull, and flaky skin, which can also contribute to acne because it’s a sign that the dead skin cells aren’t shedding properly.
Fun fact: Accutane, which is the nuclear weapon for acne, is basically vitamin A on steroids, so having this antioxidant as a part of your diet definitely counts as a step towards healthy skin.
Celery is Anti-Inflammatory
Celery is praised for its anti-inflammatory properties that stem from high levels of luteolin.
Luteolin is a compound commonly present in plants that have been used ethnopharmacologically to treat inflammation-related symptoms, including insect bites, wounds, fungal infections, windburns, and other skin ailments.
Both isolated luteolin and extracts from luteolin-rich plants such as celery have been studied multiple times using various models and have time and time again exhibited anti-inflammatory activity.
Luteolin works by inhibiting the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which are small proteins that signal the immune system to fight against something (such as an overgrowth of bacteria) by creating inflammation.
Additionally, celery also contains polyacetylene compounds like apigenin which has also been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects such as lowering oxidative stress throughout the body.
These compounds can be beneficial for acne because acne is an inflammatory condition, and reducing inflammation can help clear up breakouts and prevent new ones from forming.
Celery is Hydrating
Celery is made up of 96% water, making it a great hydrating food.
And while hydration might not necessarily get rid of acne on its own, it’s definitely a key component when trying to achieve clear skin.
Drinking a good amount of water can help flush toxins and waste products from the body, support healthy digestion, and keep the skin’s natural oils balanced.
Additionally, celery’s high water content means that it’s also packed with electrolytes, which are essential for maintaining hydration because they help the body absorb water more effectively.
Other Skin Benefits of Celery
Besides being an excellent anti-inflammatory component that would help soothe inflammation responsible for acne, celery can also help relieve the itchy symptoms of psoriasis.
Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease, which basically means the skin is attacking the skin, causing red or silvery and often itchy scales in certain areas of the face and body, such as the temples, cheeks, chest, elbows, and knees.
Psoriasis isn’t painful, per se, but it can be an incredibly uncomfortable and challenging condition to deal with, and oftentimes people who are experiencing these symptoms are given corticosteroids as a temporary solution.
Steroids can relieve some of the uncomfortable symptoms of psoriasis; however, they are notorious for causing withdrawals that make the original condition more bearable than the cure.
Steroid withdrawal symptoms often appear in the form of swelling, redness, skin sensitivity, and intense burning, which can last a couple of weeks or months, but they can stick around for longer than that.
Which is why Kim Kardashian was wise to drop them and stick to celery juice as per the recommendation of Anthony Williams, a Medical Medium who advised her to drink celery juice on an empty stomach to get rid of her psoriasis.
By drinking celery juice, the salts present in the plant can stabilize the immune system and normalize the scaling caused by this pesky condition.
Besides that, and due to its potent anti-inflammatory properties, celery can also help other challenging skin conditions such as rosacea, a chronic, acne-like condition that can currently only be maintained but not fully healed.
Can Drinking Celery Juice Cause Side Effects?
As we mentioned earlier, celery is a good source of vitamin A, and while it’s not a megadose like you would find in Accutane, it’s still something to be aware of.
Too much vitamin A can lead to toxicity with symptoms including headaches, dizziness, vomiting, abdominal pain, and even hair loss.
But before you freak out and swear off celery juice for the rest of your life, know that these symptoms are usually only seen when someone takes in upwards of 25000 IU per day over an extended period.
For comparison, the average person gets about 3000-5000IU from their diet on a daily basis, so unless you’re drinking celery juice by the gallon (which is definitely not recommended), you’re probably not going to reach toxic levels.
Additionally, celery can also cause bloating, gas, and diarrhea in some people so it’s always best to start slow when incorporating it into your diet and see how your body reacts.
Lastly, celery contains furanocoumarins, including xanthotoxin, bergapten, and 5-methoxypsoralen, which are compounds that react to sunlight and are commonly found in citrus fruits.
It’s known that furanocoumarins can make the skin more sensitive to the sun and more prone to burning and UV damage.
This is yet another reason why you should take celery in moderation and be diligent with your sunscreen.
All in all, celery is a nutrient-dense vegetable with a wide variety of health benefits, including the potential to clear acne.
While more research needs to be done on the subject, the anti-inflammatory properties of celery make it a promising natural remedy for this common skin condition.
