06/23/2022 / By Rose Lidell
Unlike other superfoods, celery has a mild flavor and pale color. But despite its unimpressive look and taste, scientists say that celery may have impressive qualities to prevent and treat cancer.
Celery (Apium graveolens) is a superfood that’s full of essential vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. Celery is full of different beneficial compounds, but studies have shown that it’s main cancer-fighting constituent is apigenin, an antioxidant flavonoid.
Apigenin has powerful chemopreventive effects that continue to impress researchers. In many cell and animal studies, findings revealed that apigenin could inhibit the “initiation, progression and metastasis of tumors.”
Additionally, apigenin fights cancer at every stage with multiple mechanisms of action. This versatility is important because researchers believe it may help overcome the natural genetic variations that make it hard for some patients to benefit from a single chemopreventive compound.
Angiogenesis or the growth of new blood vessels to nourish tumors is an important process in the rapid growth of cancer. Thankfully, apigenin has been found to inhibit angiogenesis, thus depriving tumors of blood, oxygen and nutrients that they need to survive.
In a cell study, results showed that apigenin helped “starve” human pancreatic cancer cells by depriving them of the glucose they needed to fuel cancer’s rampant growth.
Apigenin also interferes with molecular signaling, which decreases the production of chemicals needed by cancer cells.
In a 2008 study, apigenin inhibited the expression of focal adhesion kinase (FAK), a protein with a crucial role in cancer’s ability to break down and invade healthy tissue. This means apigenin helped inhibit the metastasis of human ovarian cancer cells.
According to another study, apigenin protected pancreatic cells from inflammatory and cancer-causing damage induced by the NF-kappaB cytokine.
Additionally, apigenin promotes apoptosis or the programmed death of cancer cells. Scientists discovered that the ability of apigenin to induce apoptosis also reduced the incidence of early lesions in rat subjects with laboratory-induced colon cancer.
In an extensive 2016 review of cell and animal studies on apigenin, study authors credited apigenin with diverse and potent chemoprotective qualities and effects:
The authors concluded that apigenin is beneficial in both the prevention and treatment of many types of cancer.
Celery is often considered a “negative calorie” food, meaning that eating and digesting it burns more calories than the food provides. This is not true.
Celery is a true low-calorie food, but this false belief may have resulted in celery’s reputation as a vegetable with no nutritional value. Yet the studies discussed above have shown that celery should be a part of a balanced diet, especially if you want to lower your cancer risk.
Celery is full of nutrients, such as:
Celery is also a natural source of powerful antioxidants like caffeic acid, ferulic acid and quercetin. This low-calorie veggie is also rich in dietary fiber.
And did you know celery contains other chemopreventive constituents aside from apigenin? Like its close relatives carrots, fennel and parsley, celery contains cancer-fighting compounds called polyacetylenes.
Celery is also a hydrating superfood full of nutrients, meaning eating it as a snack can help prevent dehydration.
Don’t just demote celery to a garnish on dishes that you don’t eat. Instead, try some of the recipes below to reap the many health benefits of this cancer-fighting vegetable.
Kombu celery
This recipe for kombu celery makes a crunchy, salty, sesame-drenched appetizer.
Ingredients for 4 servings:
Preparation:
6-Ingredient simple celery soup
This celery soup is a great vegetarian soup that will use up any leftover celery in your fridge.
It’s a smooth soup that you can drink straight from a mug when the weather is cold. This is a creamy soup, but the recipe only requires a little bit of cream so it won’t add too many calories or fat to each serving.
Ingredients for 6 servings:
Preparation:
Notes:
Winter Italian chopped salad
This winter Italian chopped salad pairs celery with outer tasty superfoods like artichokes, chickpeas and oranges.
Ingredients for 4-6 servings:
Preparation:
You can also use celery in various salads or serve it with dips or hummus. Another option is to serve braised celery as a side vegetable.
Add celery to your regular diet and improve your lifestyle habits to lower your risk of developing cancer.
Watch the video below to know more about the health benefits of celery.
This video is from the Natural News channel on Brighteon.com.
5 Health benefits of fiber-rich celery.
Celery is a crunchy superfood that reverses metabolic syndrome.
Study finds that celery compounds may halt breast cancer.
Sources:
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#nutrition, alternative medicine, Apigenin, Celery, disease treatments, food cures, food is medicine, functional food, natural cures, nutrients, prevention, recipes
This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author