Celery Juice for UTIs: I tried?!

You might have noticed that things have gotten a little weird over on Instagram recently. If you haven’t, well it is time you do be in the known. Someone mentioned to me there was some sort of a celery juice UTI movement happening unbeknownst to most normal people, one of the purported claims being that it could be beneficial to those with chronic urinary tract infections.

UTIs are not really something I’ve talked about here, but they are a very annoying real part of my life — I’ve been suffering from chronic UTI for years. In the last few years, I’ve grown to be resistant to several types of antibiotics and spent hundreds of dollars on natural remedies and potions of all sorts in the hope of curing these rather annoying and sadly way too common bacterial infections. And I know A LOT of women relate to this and also suffer from recurrent UTI problems.

So if someone tells me that buying two dollars worth of stalky things and drinking a big glass of pure celery juice for UTI healing witchcraft, whatever the benefits of celery juice may be, imma juice, yo. Imma juice hard. Imma juice like there’s no tomorrow.

And so I have been drinking a large cup of celery juice every morning for almost two months now. So what the hell happens next???

Y Celery Juice for UTIs, tho?

You might think there’s very little in celery apart from a huge amount of stringy fiber that seems to get wound around your teeth when you chew on sticks of it instead of reaching for that bowl of calorie-rich nachos and indulging your inner food baby — but you’d be dead wrong. Sure, celery is almost totally bland and tastes like almost nothing at all, apart from, maybe, wet wallpaper, but it turns out there’s a whole host of health benefits to chugging down big ol’ glasses of the green stuff, and celebs and the Instagramiverse are signing right up for their various health issues.

Celery, which originates in Mediterranean countries and the Middle East, has long been the go-to food for folk looking to shift the pounds. That’s because there’s very little food in it — with just six measly calories per stalk, it’s practically air and often a companion of any weight loss journey, with good reason. You can also chop it up and chuck it into salads, but it’s likely to remain at the bottom of the bowl, ignored, unloved and mostly untouched. And that, people, makes me so so sad.

Elsewhere, this peculiar plant that doesn’t seem to know what it is — or people, rather, are not quite sure what to do with it — crops up alongside hummus and other dips and makes limp appearances in crudité spreads that are supposed to accompany polite-conversation apéritif (pre-dinner drinks to you and me). But now, the oh-so-humble celery stick is being touted away from its peanut butter and as a miracle superfood that can aid with everything from gut health to inflammatory conditions, yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, blood purification, and even sports performance — and, of course, it’s “highly detoxifying”. Elsewhere, celery seeds have also been known to have some health benefits.

As the celery juice movement gathers steam, this latest wellness trend is exploding all over social media and in news stories everywhere. Its chief cheerleader, “Medical Medium” Anthony William, says all you need to do is down a big glass of celery juice first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach, and let it get to work curing you of all your ills. The results are apparently so overwhelming that people are being bowled right over. One American entertainment TV host even declared that celery juice had “truly changed my life”. Who knew what a glass of green goo could do for your bladder wall?!

Health Benefits of Celery Juice

So what are the purported health benefits and positive effects of celery juice, you ask? Depending on who you’re listening to, or reading — and there’s a growing number of people who are recommending you drink celery juice to gain optimal health — you may hear different things. What’s not in dispute is the makeup of the plant, which we know is packed full of vitamin C and vitamin K, aiding heart, immune system, and bone health, as well as magnesium, potassium and phthalides, a phytochemical that can help to regulate high blood pressure. All this is good, and as everyone knows, you’re never going to find anything bad in vegetables anyway (toxic mushrooms and other poisonous plants aside).

And doing a celery juice cleanse, for instance, is all the easier given celery’s delicate taste — so it’s not likely to make you retch when you reach for it first thing and down it on an empty stomach. Plus, if you’re not particularly fond of having celery solely in a juice, there’s nothing stopping you from adding what you like — a little cucumber juice, a little carrot juice, why not some lime juices, and a touch of apple cider vinegar or cranberry juice, which can also be beneficial to the urinary system (I take cranberry supplements daily as a matter of fact). As well as, let’s not forget, plenty of water in the first place.

Celery Juice UTI healing: the verdict

Has celery juice cured my UTI? Well, no. I’m still my hormonally-pimply self and I still have the occasional stubborn bladder infections. But I come from being a very healthy person, so perhaps you’ll see greater changes than I did starting your day with celery juice. What I will say, however, is that drinking it first thing in the morning (I started adding half a lemon to the mix recently) is refreshing and somewhat addictive. It’s a bit salty and feels like a big dose of vitamins and minerals when I get up. And celery is super cheap — although for a brief moment grocery stores decided to inflate the price of it.

So there. Drinking celery juice may or may not be the magical elixir you were after and definitely didn’t cure my UTIs, but it will certainly do you a lot of good and no harm at all, so get on juicing, celery for UTI or not, and what the hell, celery for president! But by golly, before reaching for natural products, alternative medicine, or home remedies, seek professional medical advice from a medical doctor or health care provider when you suffer from a serious health condition or any kind of infection. Celery won’t do sh*t for a kidney infection!