Sorry, But Celery Juice Isn’t Actually A Magical Weightloss Drink

Celery juice is the latest health and weightloss trend to sweep Instagram, and it’s been tried out by everyone from Pharrell and Gwyneth Paltrow to Kim Kardashian and Lea Michele.

Instagrammers are claiming it to be the cure for a range of ailments, but most people seem to be drinking it for weightloss.

The hashtag #celeryjuice has over 122,000 posts on Instagram, with various other hashtags mentioning things like celery juice ‘cleanses’ or ‘detoxes’. Every so often a quick-fix weightloss ‘hack’ becomes popular on Instagram, but it doesn’t always turn out to be the healthiest thing – remember when lots of people were ill-advisedly drinking baking soda to slim down?

“Celery juice is currently trending on social media, having been lauded for weightloss and ‘detoxing’ benefits. While it is true that it is a nutritious vegetable, unfortunately, it does not have any specific weightloss or detoxing properties,” explains Medicspot GP Dr Farah Gilani.

Unfortunately, it might even have the opposite desired effect. “When juiced, it provides a concentrated sugar hit, which is not as healthy as eating the vegetable whole,” Gilani explains.

There might be a reason so many Instagrammers are claiming to have lost weight on a strict diet of celery juice. “Rather than being a result of any specific weight-burning properties of the celery, this tends to be because all other food is eliminated from the diet, thus creating a calorie deficit and causing weightloss,” says Gilani. “When individuals return to their normal diets, the weight tends to pile back on, as with many other fad diets.”

It might not be the news you want to hear, but a shortcut really isn’t the best option if you want to make long-term, sustainable changes to your body. “The reality is that the most effective way to lose weight is to follow a healthy balanced diet, full of fruits and vegetables, to limit portion sizes and to exercise regularly,” explains Gilani.

If you do want to try something new to make your diet a bit healthier, Gilani recommends trying the Mediterranean way of eating which she calls “the only specific diet that has been consistently shown to have health benefits.”

And definitely don’t listen to anyone who tells you celery juice will “detox” your body. “When it comes to ‘detoxing’, the liver and kidneys already do a stellar job of this in our bodies and we don’t need any food products to carry out this process,” she says.

It almost goes without saying that unless you have any serious health issues, there’s no need to feel like you have to lose weight. You’re perfect as you are – but if you want to feel a bit better, a healthy diet can go a long way. If you’re the kind of person who actually enjoys drinking celery juice, go for it, but don’t bother drinking litres of the green stuff just because everyone else is doing it on Instagram.
It might not be the news you want to hear, but a shortcut really isn’t the best option if you want to make long-term, sustainable changes to your body. “The reality is that the most effective way to lose weight is to follow a healthy balanced diet, full of fruits and vegetables, to limit portion sizes and to exercise regularly,” explains Gilani.

If you do want to try something new to make your diet a bit healthier, Gilani recommends trying the Mediterranean way of eating which she calls “the only specific diet that has been consistently shown to have health benefits.”