It sounds silly, but I've always been a fan of celery. The satisfying crunch, the clean flavour...and when I was a child, I thought it matched up beautifully with peanut butter and raisins for the classic treat "ants on a log."
Of course, most people think it's a boring vegetable. They just aren't that impressed.
Now, thanks to new findings, celery might start getting the respect I've always thought it deserves.
Scientists at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands recently found that eating foods like celery and parsley could help prevent leukaemia.
Thanks to a compound called apigenin, celery packs more cancer-fighting power than previously thought. Apigenin halts the development and cuts the survival chances of two kinds of leukaemia cells.
Apigenin is a bioflavonoid, and if you're a regular e-Tips reader or a Nutrition & Healing subscriber, you've probably heard that word before. Biolavonoids have antioxidant properties ? they protect cells by fighting free radical damage. Apigenin is also found in red wine and tomato sauce. And leukaemia is just the beginning. Researchers have also found the substance may help protect against ovarian cancer and prostate cancer.
So, the next time you're in the produce section of your supermarket, don't pass the celery by in search of more exciting fare ? pick up a bunch and crunch away.
Source @ Copyright (c) 2010 Agora Health Limited.
Caution: Celery has no protective skin, which makes it almost impossible to wash off the chemicals that are used on conventional crops.
A perennial entrant on the Dirty Dozen list, 64 pesticides detected in residue on this veggie make celery rank No. 1 in the 2010 analysis, up from No. 4 in 2009.
The best solution is try to get it from an organic veggies producer.
