I Tried Celery Juice For A Month – This Is What Happened

Celery juice emerged as a leading trend in the 2019 wellness sphere with lots of hype around it. Most of the chatter around celery juice and its healing benefits stemmed from one source –Medical Medium. Anthony William, the founder of Medical Medium, initiated the now-phenomenon of using celery juice to heal the body from the inside out.

William’s research supports the idea that celery juice hosts a wide range of medical benefits, including improved digestion, better thyroid function, and chronic illness management.

Since its inception, the celery juice trend has spread like wildfire, especially in the internet influencer world. Popular lifestyle blogger Jordan Younger raves about the impact that celery juice has had on her life and in her healing journey from chronic lyme. Gwenyth Paltrow, who runs the popular lifestyle website Goop, also supports the celery juice ritual. Even Kim Kardashian has dabbled in using celery juice to heal her skin.

With all the buzz around the celery juice trend, but not a lot of quantitative data, you may be wondering if these Instagram influencers really experience the benefits they tout, or if it’s a marketing scheme. Never fear, Territory fam, I decided to try the celery juice protocol for a month so I could report honest feedback about what this seemingly magical juice does for the body.

I committed to making my own juice at home fresh each morning, as recommended by the Medical Medium Protocol. Aside from introducing the juice, I didn’t change anything else about my lifestyle or diet so I could contribute any changes that might occur to the celery juice.

Days 1-7:

I spent the first week ramping up my intake of celery juice. The Medical Medium Protocol recommends 16 ounces of fresh celery juice per day on an empty stomach, ideally first thing in the morning while you are fasted. As someone with a highly sensitive stomach, I found out after the first day that jumping into 16 ounces of juice each morning was NOT going to cut it for me (my stomach was a wreck). So, on day 2 I brought it back down to 6 oz, then worked my way back up to 16 oz over the course of a week.

Noticeable Changes:

• I actually really enjoy the taste of celery juice, so it was easy for me to drink.
• The most inconvenient part was having to actually juice the celery fresh each morning, and then wait 30 minutes before my coffee – because … coffee.
• Physically, I didn’t notice a whole lot other than the celery juice tamed my hunger for a few hours; I noticed I was getting hungry for breakfast much later in the morning.
• Oh, and if you have issues with keeping a regular bathroom schedule, celery juice has got your back (if you know what I mean).

Days 8-14:

I got the routine down by this point, was tolerating the celery juice better, found my groove and was eager to start seeing the possible benefits. Part of what William claims is that celery juice increases the hydrochloric acid in your stomach to help digest food, which is why so many people report that they experience less bloat when consuming celery juice. I was particularly excited about this, as I’ve suffered from low stomach acid for most of my life and take hydrochloric acid every meal to help. Still, I always struggle with bloating after my meals. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to seeing the bloat go down.

• Sadly, I did not experience reduced bloating this week, but remained optimistic for the upcoming weeks.
• I noticed that my sugar cravings in the late afternoons and evenings were barely present, which is AMAZING for me and my sweet tooth. 
• I also noticed my skin glowing a little more than usual – I felt fresh faced and radiant.
• Better energy. I am actually a 78 yr old trapped in a 28 yr old body, with a normal bedtime of around 9pm. Between the first and second week,  I was noticing my ability to stay up later and later. I was getting sleepy around 10:30 pm, which was a drastic change.

Days 15-22:

By this point, I actually had come to enjoy the celery juice making ritual every morning. Start to finish, it took me about 10 minutes, since cleaning a juicer can be a bit of a pain. I’d make my celery juice, sip on it while meditating for 10 minutes or so, and then journal while I waited the 30 minutes before I could have my coffee (which by now, had become a little less painful). By this point, I was wondering if I should switch careers and become a wellness/lifestyle influencer.

Noticeable Changes:

• I still had bloating, and it actually got WORSE immediately after drinking celery juice! I was definitely disappointed about this particular piece of the puzzle.
• Sugar cravings were still nonexistent.
• Continued to have great energy.
• I started noticing that the dark circles under my eyes were slowly fading. I come from an Indian background, where it’s common for women to struggle with dark circles under their eyes. Between week 3 and 4, I could see that the skin under my eyes was lightening. Whoa.

The final week felt nearly identical to the previous week. I continued to feel bloated, yet had great energy, no sugar cravings, and the under eye circles  continued to slowly lighten.

Ultimately, I loved my experience with celery juice. I can’t say whether it’s truly a magical healing protocol or not, but I definitely noticed significant improvements to my wellbeing by drinking 16 oz of celery juice each morning.

When I realized that celery juice was not going to be the magic cure to my bloating, I decided to do some digging. It just didn’t seem fair that I’d be the only person not to reap the de-bloating benefits. Turns out, celery can actually be disruptive to the digestive system if you are moderately to severely reactive to FODMAPS (not sure what FODMAPs are? Get the scoop here).

Given my past history with high FODMAP foods, this is what I concluded happened to me. Anthony William says that you could experience bloating with celery juice because you are detoxing, but to be honest, I’m not quite buying that given the FODMAP issue.

Overall, I noticed some clear improvements to my health and wellbeing over the course of the month I spent on the Medical Medium protocol. However, given the digestive problems it caused, it’s not something I could do long-term. I can see a huge benefit for people struggling with fatigue & malaise that do not suffer from gastrointestinal disorders.