Celery adds few calories to your diet, but a lot of crunch to salads and subtle flavor to soups and stews. Including celery in your meal plan may help you maintain a healthy weight -- a plus for controlling triglycerides -- but celery will not magically reduce your triglycerides. However, it certainly won't harm them, either.
Celery Study
Celery has been both touted and panned as a cure for high cholesterol and high blood pressure. A small study led by Dr. William Elliott, a researcher at the University of Chicago, found that rats fed a celery extract -- 3-n-butyl phthalide -- tested 12 percent to 14 percent lower for blood pressure and 7 percent lower for cholesterol than rodents that didn't get celery in their diets, according to a June 8, 1992 article in "The New York Times." Celery growers made much ado about the findings, but their marketing efforts did little to inspire sales or additional research.
Triglycerides and Food
Triglycerides, one of three lipids that make up your total cholesterol reading, are very sensitive to foods in your diet. Foods that contain saturated fat -- primarily animal products -- and trans fat, a man-made fat created when turning vegetable oil into margarine and shortening, elevate your triglycerides. Your body also converts some substances -- sugar and alcohol, especially -- into triglycerides. If you weigh more than you should, you may also measure high for triglycerides.
Celery Nutrition and Benefits
A stalk of celery contains 6 calories per medium stalk, virtually no fat and less than 1 g of sugar. You would need to eat more celery than you could probably stomach to cause more than a blip in your triglyceride levels. The fiber in celery -- 0.6 g per stalk -- might help you to improve your low density lipoprotein -- LDL or "bad" cholesterol -- and blood pressure, as well as help you to lose weight. Triglycerides make a home in your body's fat cells, so if you lose fat, you will lower your triglycerides.
Diet to Lower Triglycerides
The American Heart Association recommends following a low-fat, low-sugar diet to lower your triglycerides. You could certainly include celery on a triglyceride-friendly diet. The American Heart Association says you can lower your triglycerides 20 percent if you limit your daily intake of saturated fat to 16 g a day, your consumption of trans fat to 2 g a day, calories from foods with added sugar to 100 a day and alcoholic beverages to no more than two drinks daily. To reduce triglycerides by another 20 to 30 percent, exercise moderately at least 150 minutes per week.
References
- "The New York Times"; A New Look at an Old Remedy; Jane Brody; June 8, 1992
- "Herald Sun"; Celery's Health Benefit Disputed; (NO BYLINE) June 10, 1992
- American Heart Association: Diet, Lifestyle Changes Can Significantly Reduce Triglyceride; April 18 2011
- United States Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database:
- MayoClinic.com; Nutrition and Healthy Eating -- Dietary Fiber: Essential For A Healthy Diet; 2009
- Cleveland Clinic: Heart and Vascular Health and Prevention; How Foods Affect Triglycerides
