As diabetes is a complicated disease, diabetic patients have to be wary about what should they eat and what should they not eat. Devising an adequate meal plan is the most important way in which you can manage diabetes in an effective manner. As such, you have to be well-versed with what a food contains and what it does not contain in order to ensure that it does not affect your health in an adverse manner, particularly if you are a diabetic. In this article, we shall study and analyze more about eating celery and how celery might affect the meal plan of a person who happens to suffer from diabetes. So, come and join in for the article “Is Celery Good or Bad for Diabetics?”

The Nutrition Profile of Celery

To begin with, let us first see the various essential nutrients and vitamins present in this green, leafy vegetable:

• Essential nutrients present in celery include folate, manganese, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, calcium, etc.
• It is a rich source of vitamins such as vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin A, riboflavin, as well as vitamin B6.
• It has very fewer calories, saturated fat, and cholesterol
• The vegetable may be high in its total sodium content when compared to the other vegetables

Let us now delve into the advantages and disadvantages of including celery in the diet of a diabetic patient.

Benefits of Including Celery in a Diabetic Diet

The following are the advantages of including celery in your diet if you are someone who suffers from a condition like diabetes:

• Celery is a rich source of several antioxidants. These, along with several above-mentioned nutrients that the plant is known for, reduces the inflammation caused in the patients’ due to diabetes. This is particularly due to the presence of apigenin that is found in the green, leafy vegetable.
• The presence of flavonoids and several other nutrients that are known to prevent various harmful microbes and bacteria also go a long way in fighting diabetes in the ones that consume celery on a daily basis.
• Celery is considered to be a great food option if you are someone who is looking for a reduction of the elevated levels of blood glucose levels
• The presence of several nutrients and vitamins in this green leafy vegetable such as vitamin K, vitamin C, manganese, iron, zinc, amongst others help in the reduction in cholesterol, blood pressure, which help in an effective management of the chronic illness.
• Diabetes is known to be a condition which causes loss of immunity in the body. Vitamin C present in abundance in celery help your body to fight against weakened immunity
• Celery is low in the glycemic index which means you need not worry about your rising blood glucose levels if you are including the vegetable in your daily diet.
• There is hardly any calories presence in the food. This, along with the fact that the vegetable is high in its total fiber content makes you feel full for a longer period of time with the result that you can effectively manage weight.

Thus, celery provides multiple health benefits to the diabetes patients and hence, is safe enough to be included in the diet after proper expert supervision.

Risks of Including Celery in a Diabetic Diet

The following are some of the risks that you might face if you are including diabetes in your regular diet if you are someone who suffers from diabetes:

• You can experience a few allergic reactions when you are eating celery. Hence, you need to be careful of the same.
• Sodium is present in high quantity in celery as compared to the quantity present in other vegetables. Therefore, as a diabetic patient, it becomes important that you monitor your total sodium intake.
• Celery is known to be a diuretic. Hence, if you are someone who has a problem with diarrhea, you need to be careful when you are including this vegetable in your daily diet.

Thus, when you take celery and make it a part of your overall diabetic meal plan, you need to take into consideration the above-mentioned risks.

How to Include Celery in Your Diabetic Diet?

There are several different ways in which you can include celery in your diet. The following points describe some of the more important and easy ways:

• Ideally, a diabetic should eat celery in its raw form
• Besides, you can add the vegetable in your soup or make it a part of your salad
• You can also make juice of the vegetable while also adding carrots, endive, and parsley
• You can combine the vegetable with food items such as tuna, salmon, etc. in order to get a nice crunch
• You can steam it for 10 to 15 minutes and eat the same
• Finally, you can Sautee the vegetable in olive oil and also consume it

The above are just some of the ways in which you can eat celery. There are other ways of including the vegetable in your diet too.

Guideline for Including Celery in Your Diet

Remember the following while you are including celery in your diet as part of your everyday meal plan:

• A glass of celery juice in between meals go a long way in helping you effectively manage diabetes.
• You should not go overboard with the total consumption of the vegetable.
• If you are eating celery seeds, a healthy dose for diabetes to an amount of one to two tablespoons in a few cups of boiling water is considered to be very effective.
• You should go for that celery which has a stalk that is green and crisp.
• Do not go for those stalks that are extremely lose
• You should wash the vegetable before you use it
• Warp it up in a paper towel and store. This way, you can keep the vegetable fresh for a longer period of time

Following the above simple guidelines will help you go a long way in dealing with diabetes effectively while also helping you with several other health benefits.

We hope that the above article has been helpful in improving your knowledge and understanding about the relationship between celery and diabetes. We hope that we have been able to answer the question that whether or not eating celery is good for a diabetic patient. It is clear from the above article that you can certainly include celery in your diabetic diet without many adverse effects. However, you need to follow the adequate amount that is best suited for your disease. You should also take the advice of your medical expert when you decide to include celery in your diabetic diet!!