Celery is a polarizing vegetable. You either love it or you hate it. It seems our bodies are pretty fond of it, even for those of us whose taste buds don't find it so agreeable. It turns out that just about every part of the celery plant, from the leaves to the seeds to the most familiar and delicious part, the long, crispy, fibrous stalk, have benefits for your health. Celery is a marshland plant native to the marshes of the Mediterranean. It grows wild in most of the wetter parts of Europe. To grow the long, juicy celery stalks you find in your local grocery store, celery requires a ton of moisture. Since it's mostly water, you might wonder how celery manages to do anything in your body at all. Let's find out.   How Celery Is More Supplement Than Food Celery is often highlighted as a potential example of a “negative calorie” food. The idea here is that it takes your body more energy to process celery than it gets out of the deal. So, hypothetically, if you looked at the nutritional facts on some celery, you might see a negative value for the number of calories. It's not entirely clear if this is true, but it is certain that there are next to no calories in celery. Despite that, the high fiber and water content can help satiate your appetite. This has made celery immensely popular as a diet food. For people who aren't looking to lose weight, you might be wondering what the point of eating celery is at all. Unless you're fond of the taste, why eat something that isn't going to provide you any calories? To be fair to celery, it does have a modest dose of important nutrients like vitamins and minerals. It's also a great source of fiber. But what celery really has going for it is a whole bunch of useful compounds and properties that can benefit your health. Let's look at four of them.   1. Celery Is Great For Your Digestive Health As the source of all your body's energy, it's vital to keep your digestion running smoothly and efficiently extracting nutrition from your food. Celery can help. Celery is composed mostly of indigestible fiber. This stuff is great for your guts! It moves quickly through the gastrointestinal tract, helping to keep you regular. The high water content in celery is also beneficial to the health and regularity of your bowels. Not only that, several compounds such as apiuman which are found in celery have been associated with decreased incidence of stomach ulcers. Celery can actually help repair and improve the lining of the stomach and assists the body's natural regulation of stomach secretions.   2. Celery Is Full Of Flavonoids It just so happens that celery is an exceptional source of a class of compounds known as flavonoids. These act as essential (but lesser-known) nutrients and perform a huge array of functions in [...]

It might seem like there is nothing surprising about carrots. After all, they're one of the most popular vegetables on the planet. Put them in a salad, a soup, a curry, eat them raw with some dip, or cook them up for a soft, delicious, and nutrient-rich addition to lunch or dinner. Carrots are so versatile and popular that the average American eats around 12 pounds of carrots each year! But again, that's nothing terribly surprising about this tuber that you probably weren't already aware of. The really interesting thing about carrots is their hidden health benefits. In central Asia and the Middle East where carrots were originally cultivated, ancient farmers regarded carrots as more of a medicine than a foodstuff. It turns out they were on to something.   How Carrots Can Improve Your Health And Your Diet To list all the health benefits of carrots, you'd need to write a book about them. And many people have. You're probably already aware that carrots are healthy part of most people's diet. They're low in calories and high in nutrition. They're jam packed with beta-carotene, fiber, potassium, vitamin K, and other essential nutrients. Carrots also provide a potent source of antioxidants. As much as carrots have a place in anyone's diet, let's take a look at what sorts of hidden benefits eating carrots can provide you with.   1. Carrots Fight Cancer Several studies have linked consuming carrots to a reduced risk of cancer. One study found that an extract of carrot juice killed cancer cells in a test tube experiment. Another study found that diets high in carrots reduced the risk for prostate cancer. A meta-analysis of medical literature discovered an association between consuming carrots and reducing the risk of gastric cancer by as much as 26%. These exciting findings offer an excellent reason to chow down on that extra carrot!   2. Carrots Are Great For Your Brain When your brain feels a bit foggy, you might reach for a cup of coffee. But maybe you should try a carrot or two instead. Diets rich in carrots have been associated with improved memory and cognitive function. A study of middle-aged men found that those who ate a lot of carrots and other root vegetables showed less signs of cognitive decline associated with aging.   3. They Really Are Good For Your Eyes You've probably heard that carrots are good for your vision. It's an age-old adage on why you ought to eat your vegetables. In the Second World War, the British cleverly disguised the fact they had deployed a new technology known as radar by giving carrots a little too much praise. They claimed that the pilots of the Royal Air Force had achieved a sort of super-human vision thanks to their healthy, carrot-rich diets, which allowed them to navigate their planes in the dead of night. Of course, this is a myth, but like any good myth it's based on a kernel [...]

Lemon water. Delicious. Refreshing. You probably think of lemon water as more of a snack than a supplement, but it turns out that the remarkably simple preparation of lemon juice and water is not without its own health benefits. Lemon water has been looked at as a natural energy booster, a solution to help improve everyday hydration, a digestive aid, a detoxifying agent, and even an immune system aid. That's a lot of jobs for a lemon!   You Know What They Say, "A Lemon A Day..." Who knew that lemons could be a source of good habits? Drinking lemon water is certainly a great habit to be in. It's an excellent way to hydrate your body while providing a natural dose of delicious Vitamin C and other healthy compounds. We all know about Vitamin C, but what else is hiding in our lemon juice? Lemons provide us with a great source of potassium and vitamin B6. We also find the antioxidants hesperidin, diosmin, and eriocitrin, among other substances beneficial to the body. Drinking lemon water is a great way to infuse your diet with all of these helpful compounds with minimal effort.   Encouraging You To Drink Delicious Water Clean drinking water is readily available practically everywhere in the United States. Despite this, in 2013 CBS News reported that as many as 75% of Americans may be suffering from chronic dehydration. Lemon water is one of many antidotes to this problem. Adding just a few drops of lemon juice (ideally of the fresh squeezed variety) will bring any glass of water to life with a delicious zest that will encourage you to stay properly hydrated. Unlike commercial sweeteners and additives, lemon juice doesn't add a ton of sugars, calories, or artificial chemicals to your water. Rather than making your water less healthy to drink by adding sugar and dyes, lemon water actually has benefits of its own which will compound with your improving hydration! For this reason, lemon water is often included as part of a diet plan. It can help to replace sugary drinks like sodas and juices without forcing you to just drink plain old water.   Get An Everyday Boost From Drinking Lemon Water Adding lemon water to your diet can have quite a few perks. Some have even suggested it as an alternative to coffee for that early morning kick. While diehard coffee fans might not be throwing out their coffee pots just yet, there are numerous reasons to add lemon water to your morning routine or have some with breakfast and lunch.   Get Your Body Working: Lemon water hydrates and energizes the body, especially in the morning. It helps oxygen and H2O reach hungry cells and prepare them for the day. It also stimulates your bowels and the liver's production of bile. This has a two-pronged effect of helping you have a healthier elimination than a laxative such as coffee might, while also helping the liver do the [...]

Ah, the humble bean. Widespread across the globe, these little packets of nutrition have been the staple of diets and even the stuff of legend. Beans are a type of legume, a seed from one of several species in the flowering pant family Fabaceae. Archaeologists have discovered that Fabaceae species, especially those from the genus Phaseolus which is responsible for beans, were some of the earliest plants to be cultivated by humanity. The origins of humanity's relationship with these plants traces back to ancient Afghanistan and the foothills of the Himalayas. Bean cultivation would later spread to Asia, where in what is now modern day Thailand the evidence of bean farming predates ceramics. Even to these ancient people, the nutritional value of beans was clear. Now modern health experts are shining a light on what a good decision our ancestors made by giving us the bean.   How Beans Manage To Be Delicious, Nutritious, And Good For Your Body You probably already know a bit about how exceptionally nutritious beans are. That's part of why they are so popular. There is a huge variety of beans out there. In the United States, the most popular types are black, pinto, kidney, and fava beans. They are an exceptional source of plant-based proteins, often making beans a primary protein source for vegetarian or vegan diets. Because beans are high in protein but low in calories, it's easy to consume sizable portions to meet daily protein requirements. In some regions of the world, beans and other legumes are the only source of protein in the diet! Luckily, beans are also packed with fiber, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, folate, and potassium. It even has some vitamins such as B1, B6, E, and K, as well as a dose of selenium, zinc, and copper. Amazingly enough, beans contain at least some trace of just about everything required to keep your body alive. But what else might these beans be doing for our health? Let's take a look at three fascinating features of this common foodstuff.   1. Beans Can Be A Heart-Healthy Food Beans have been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol levels, reducing the risk of heart disease. Beans have also been linked to lowering blood pressure, increasing “good” HDL cholesterol levels, and improving the overall health of the heart and cardiovascular system. There is also some evidence suggesting a diet high in beans helps suppress inflammation throughout the body, letting the blood circulate more effectively.   2. Beans Can Help With Your Weight Loss Goals Because beans are high in protein and fiber, they do a great job at satiating your appetite. At the same time, they're low in calories. This is an exceptional combination for anyone looking to curb their over-eating or just add healthy, nutrient-rich foods to their diet plan. Inexpensive and easy to prepare in an almost endless variety of different dishes, beans make a fantastic staple in any almost diet. Not only that, studies have linked [...]

Everyone knows garlic is delicious. Across the globe, it serves as an essential ingredient in innumerable dishes spanning virtually every type of cuisine. Despite its ubiquity around the world, few people are aware of the many health benefits that this everyday foodstuff has to offer. You may have heard of garlic's supernatural ability to keep you safe from vampires, but did you know it is actually a potent antibacterial and antiviral agent? Or that garlic has been demonstrated to be toxic to cancer cells in a laboratory setting? How about its ability to reduce inflammation, improve heart health, and promote improved immune function? It turns out that what most of us think of as little more than a seasoning has a wealth of (mostly) untold benefits for your body.   How Garlic Improves Your Food And Your Health In the world of the culinary arts, garlic is often referred to as an herb. Meanwhile, the biologists would call it a vegetable, and a very specific type of vegetable: one from the allium family, a relative of onions and leeks. These allium vegetables are popular for their pungent odor. This characteristic scent is associated with compounds rich in sulfur such as allicin and diallyl disulfide, which garlic produces in great quantities. It's these unique sulfur compounds that have been identified as a source of many of garlic's health benefits. Garlic has been shown to: Possess antifungal, antibacterial, antimicrobial, and antiparasitic actions Improve blood circulation and overall cardiovascular function by reducing plaque buildup and hardening of the arteries, as well as promoting healthy cholesterol levels Reduce inflammation throughout the body Boost the immune system to prevent illness and shorten the duration of ailments like the flu and the common cold Provide high levels of essential nutrients including selenium, calcium, phosphorous, manganese, and Vitamin B6 Act as a potent source of free radical fighting antioxidants which help prevent cell damage Be toxic to 14 types of cancer cells in a laboratory setting   Are You Getting Enough Garlic? There's a good chance you eat garlic in one or more meals  everyday. Hearing about all these health benefits is great, but it might leave you wondering if you're getting enough garlic in you're diet to be reaping all (or any) of these benefits. More than likely, unless you're taking garlic supplements or eating whole cloves everyday, you're not getting enough. The amount of garlic used to season your food isn't enough. At least not to impart any of the health benefits on the level which researchers are trying to examine them. Because eating raw garlic is not a pleasant experience no matter how fond you are of garlic, most people opt for garlic pill supplements. Still, these can vary quite a bit in dosage. In examining a variety of studies on the health benefits of garlic, we find researchers using anywhere from 500mg-2g each day in experiments that attempted to reduce blood pressure and combat the common cold, among [...]

When you think of chocolate, your imagination probably veers more towards candy than health food. There is good reason for this. Most of the “chocolate” you find in stores is filled with diary, refined sugars, preservatives, and extremely processed. These candies contain very little of what actually makes chocolate chocolate: cacao. Cacao beans have a rich chemistry filled with biologically useful compounds like epicatechin (which can act as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory) and resveratrol, an interesting substance that has been studied for its neuroprotective benefits. Enter dark chocolate. Made properly, dark chocolate can tame the bitterness of cacao and provide an easy – even enjoyable – way to let your body experience the many helpful effects of cacao's unique biochemistry.   Dark Chocolate: A Healthy Snack? Before we look at the health benefits of dark chocolate, let's first define exactly what it is. For those looking to use dark chocolate to improve their health, the goal is to find a dark chocolate with a high percentage of cacao. Ideally, 70% or above. This is because the real benefit of dark chocolate is in its ability to make cacao a bit more palatable. Cacao is extremely bitter, but after mixing it with a sweetener we get the mixture known as chocolate. Adding sugar to the mixture doesn't negate the health benefits of consuming cacao, but it's important to be careful. Too much sugar or additives and we've left dark chocolate behind and instead created sweets.   What Dark Chocolate Can Do For Your Brain And Body If you're a big fan of dark chocolate, or you're willing to incorporate it into your diet, what sort of health effects might you expect? Cacao and dark chocolate have been recognized as a useful supplement since antiquity. The Mayans and Aztecs of the 14th century valued the cacao been so much that they used it as a form of currency. Today, modern research is revealing in great detail just how this age-old delicacy can improve our health. Here's just a few ways: Resveratrol, found in high concentrations in cacao and dark chocolate,  has been shown to be able to cross the Blood-Brain Barrier and enter the central nervous system, where it demonstrates anti-inflammatory action. This is significant as central nervous system inflammation is involved in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. Resveratrol has also been observed to stimulate the mitochondria of the cell in a manner similar to physical exercise and produce similar benefits. A 2012 study found that consuming dark chocolate cut risk of heart attack by as much as 37% and stroke by 29%. Dark chocolate has been studied as an aid to manage diabetes and cardiovascular issues. It has been demonstrated to lower insulin resistance, reduce blood pressure, and reduce LDL cholesterol. Has shown to improve liver function in patients with cirrhosis. Promotes the health of gastrointestinal flora. Reduces stress hormones and promotes a relaxed state of mind. Improves skin and helps protect against UV damage. Helps [...]