This Veggie Snack Boosts Digestion, Fights Bloating, and Eases Heartburn

What you eat can have a major impact on your digestive health. If you often struggle with tummy issues, adding in one simple food can help ease your symptoms. While it may not be on your list of favorite snacks, eating celery for digestion and heartburn has shown to be an effective remedy.

Celery for Digestion

Celery is loaded with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients that protect the entire digestive tract. More importantly, though, a specific compound found in celery called apiuman, has been shown to decrease instances of stomach ulcers, improve the health of the stomach lining, and modulate digestion-boosting stomach secretions.

Other benefits of celery for digestion include its high water and fiber content. The water content of celery is almost 95 percent, and it contains hefty amounts of both soluble and insoluble fiber (a cup of celery contains about five grams). Water and fiber both support a healthy digestive tract and help to keep you regular.

Celery also contains several B-vitamins that contribute to healthy digestion. It’s packed with vitamins B6, B3 (niacin), B2 (riboflavin), and B1 (thiamine). These vitamins help to protect the mucous lining of your digestive tract, and they also increase the production of acids, bile, and gastric juices that improve your digestion of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Without these vitamins in your diet, you may experience symptoms like bloating, uncomfortable gas, and poor bowel movements.

Celery for Heartburn

Celery is also known as an alkalizing food. Minerals in celery like magnesium, iron, and sodium, have a neutralizing effect on acidic foods which may help relieve heartburn.

And while no hard evidence exists to support this, nutrition experts like Anthony Williams, also known as the Medical Medium, suggest that celery may help with acid reflux by aiding the liver. According to him, an overburdened liver can’t produce bile properly, which then forces the stomach to overproduce hydrochloric acid, resulting in acid reflux. Getting more celery (or celery juice, in this case) in your diet can help relieve the burden on the liver because celery juice can increase bile production in the liver and restore proper hydrochloric acid function in the stomach over time.

So if you’re struggling with tummy woes like uncomfortable gas or bloating, heartburn, or even constipation, adding celery (or celery juice) to your diet could help relieve your symptoms. William’s suggests drinking between four and 16 ounces of celery juice in the morning on an empty stomach for optimal results. If that doesn’t sound so appealing to you, you can always just add a few celery sticks to your daily routine with dips like hummus, or even throw a stalk into smoothie recipes!

Here’s to a healthy, happy belly!