Celery is identified by Aajonus Vonderplanitz as one of the two most important vegetables in the entire Primal Diet, the other being parsley (or comfrey as a substitute for parsley). He states this unambiguously and repeatedly: "The two most important vegetables are celery and parsley or comfrey in place of parsley." These two form the absolute foundation of the green vegetable juice that is a cornerstone of the Primal Diet. No other vegetable comes close to celery in terms of the breadth and centrality of its role. Everything else added to a juice, carrot, zucchini, cilantro, cucumber, kale, beet, winter squash, is secondary and subordinate to the base of celery and parsley.

Celery's supreme position in the diet is rooted in several unique characteristics that Aajonus returns to again and again throughout his workshops, seminars, and written works: its mineral profile is almost identical to blood serum; it contains a negative carbohydrate load, meaning there is not even enough carbohydrate present in celery to digest the celery itself; it is extremely high in sodium in its natural, bioavailable form; and it actively pulls toxic stored sugars, toxic salts, and advanced glycation end products out of the body. These properties make it not merely a nutritious food but a highly active therapeutic and regulatory agent in the blood, tissues, and overall mineral economy of the body.

Aajonus emphasizes that celery should constitute the majority of any vegetable juice, typically 55% to 90% of the total volume, depending on the individual's condition, how long they have been on the diet, and what specific goals are being addressed. He consistently calls it "like an IV" when juiced, meaning its mineral content is so close to blood serum that it can regulate the blood almost directly, in a manner analogous to intravenous saline or mineral supplementation in conventional medicine.

Celery is also unique among vegetables in the diet because it is used as a primary sodium source in its biologically correct form, as opposed to salt in any of its crystalline or ionic forms, which Aajonus considers destructive to red blood cells and damaging to nerve tissue. The sodium in celery is presented as the smallest molecular mineral form possible, bioavailable and not prone to the clumping and aggregation that makes salt so damaging.

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The most frequently cited and foundational property of celery is what Aajonus calls its "negative carbohydrate" quality. He explains this in multiple contexts and with consistent language: "Celery does not have enough carbohydrate in it to digest celery. So it's a negative." This means that even the digestion of celery itself requires more carbohydrate energy than celery supplies. Therefore, when consumed as juice, celery creates a net negative carbohydrate environment in the body.

This negative carbohydrate status has profound implications:

1. It neutralizes high-carbohydrate additions to juice. When you combine celery juice with carrot juice (which is high in carbohydrates), the celery's negative carbohydrate value cancels out or dramatically reduces the carbohydrate load of the carrot. "You mix equal portions of celery in carrot juice and you're going to come up with an even OK level of carbohydrate." If you use 25% carrot juice in a blend, you can use 25% celery to negate the carbohydrate from the carrot. The net carbohydrate of the juice remains low.

2. It actively pulls toxic sugars out of the body. Because celery creates a negative carbohydrate environment, it draws excess stored sugars, including advanced glycation end products (AGEs), out of the blood, tissues, and organs. "It helps pull toxic sugars out of the body." This is described as a form of internal carbohydrate detoxification. Celery is characterized as a vehicle for removing the accumulation of processed sugars, cooked-food sugars, and glycated compounds that have built up over years of a conventional diet.

3. It is useful specifically during the first six to seven hours of the day. Aajonus instructs that the first six to seven hours after waking, the body is building its glycogen reserve for the day. If high-carbohydrate foods are consumed during this window, the glycogen is formed with a high percentage of advanced glycation end products, which in healthy bodies accumulates at 70% and in unhealthy bodies at 90% over a lifetime, according to his citations of Columbia University research. Celery, being a negative carbohydrate, can be consumed freely in this window without causing glycation problems, and in fact helps pull AGEs out of the system at the same time that the body is most vulnerable to producing new ones.

"The mineral concentration in celery juice is almost identical to blood serum. Not blood cells, but blood serum." This is one of Aajonus's most repeated statements about celery. The fluid of juiced celery has nearly the exact same mineral balance as blood serum. This is contrasted with blood cells, which have a different mineral composition. Blood serum is the non-cellular fluid component of blood, the plasma minus the clotting factors, and it is this fluid that celery most closely mimics.

Aajonus compares this to an IV infusion: "It will regulate the blood, it will help alkalinize it." When the blood serum is highly acidic in the morning, which he says is the normal condition for most people eating or having eaten a conventional cooked diet, the mineral infusion from celery juice acts as direct regulatory support. Because the mineral balance of celery juice matches what blood serum should contain, the body can use it almost without modification to correct electrolyte and mineral imbalances in the blood.

He contrasts celery juice favorably with Quinton Marine Plasma, a commercialized ocean water product marketed for similar blood-mineral-balancing purposes: "Celery juice has the same mineral value but should we inject diluted celery juice into our blood plasma, making it 10% of our blood plasma? We have a digestive tract for a purpose and that is to deconstruct and restructure substances (food) appropriate for the human body." The point being that celery juice achieves what proponents of Quinton claim for ocean water, but through the correct route: the digestive tract.

"Celery is very high in sodium." Aajonus identifies celery as one of the primary natural sodium sources, alongside tomatoes (which he says contain more sodium per unit than celery stalks). "Because the blood is very high like the ocean in sodium, celery meets that almost perfectly without causing the clumping of the sodium molecules that salt does."

The sodium in celery is presented as being in its food-form state, the smallest molecular mineral form available. This is contrasted sharply with salt in any crystalline form (Celtic salt, Dead Sea salt, sea salt, celery salt, table salt, all are considered damaging regardless of source). When sodium is in food form as it exists in celery, it does not clump into large ionic aggregates. When sodium is in salt form, it does clump, and those clumps "will destroy your red blood cells so quickly and age you inside even though you don't notice it. It numbs nerves, it burns them and you don't notice."

The high sodium content of celery is specifically useful for: - Replacing and correcting sodium deficiency in conditions like Addison's disease ("People who have Addison's need salt, right? You can get it from tomatoes. With celery.") - Helping to remove old, improperly stored crystalline sodium (rock salt) from the body's tissues. "It is concentrated sodium. People have so much salt stored in their system. It helps remove it. Still leave enough salt, I mean sodium, in there to keep your own electrolyte balance with sodium." - Meeting the body's ocean-level sodium needs in a biologically compatible form

Celery actively alkalinizes the blood. In the context of the morning, when the bloodstream is described as "acrid" (acidic) due to overnight detoxification, the body dumping acids, metals, and other toxins into the blood, celery juice provides the alkaline mineral base necessary to neutralize this acidity and prepare the body for digestion. "When you drink the green juice, you are going to supply lots of vitamins and enzymes and minerals to get digestion going."

Aajonus says the acidity of the morning bloodstream causes "lethargy, fatigue, irritability, unwillingness to want to mix" with other people. Drinking green vegetable juice based on celery addresses this directly. "Eat a vegetable juice with high greens in it... Celery juice is a very good juice as your base."

Celery juice provides enzymes, vitamins, and minerals needed for digestion and for the body's overall functioning. When consumed as juice, the cellulose is removed, which is significant because humans are not herbivores and cannot digest plant cellulose. Juicing extracts the nutrients without requiring the body to deal with indigestible fiber. "We juice them. And so we don't have a high carbohydrate."

The enzymes in celery are preserved only in fresh-juiced celery. If celery is dried or stored improperly, the enzyme activity deteriorates rapidly. Because celery is "mostly H2O," it breaks down very quickly once juiced. Compared to concentrated herbs (which have high oil content and can retain fragrant properties even after drying), celery's water-based nutrient matrix deteriorates fast. This means fresh-juiced celery is essential for therapeutic enzyme benefits.

Aajonus explains that the accumulation of AGEs (advanced glycation end products) is a major source of long-term damage and aging. The celery's negative carbohydrate environment actively draws these stored glycated molecules out of the tissues. "That's the stuff that the celery helps pull out." This is the core reason he recommends keeping celery at a high percentage (up to 80%) of vegetable juice for the first two to six years on the diet, depending on how much toxic sugar has accumulated.

Aajonus specifically identifies celery (both whole and as juice) as capable of preventing uric acid deposits in joints, in the same way that raw cherries do. "Eating raw celery or drinking raw celery juice does the same." He prescribes this as a remedy for arthritis-type conditions.

Aajonus makes a pointed observation about the broader biological effects of celery's negative carbohydrate status: "They don't like to feed celery to horses, because it will cause a breakdown of minerals in their bones especially in racers. So celery is not fed to anybody but who? Humans." The reason veterinarians and horse trainers avoid celery is precisely because its negative carbohydrate pulls minerals from the bones, which in a horse that needs maximum skeletal density is dangerous. In humans, however, this same mechanism is beneficial because we have accumulated massive stores of improperly mineralized tissue, toxic salts embedded in bones and tissues, and years of glycation damage. The mineral-pulling effect of celery helps detoxify these stored mineral deposits in humans rather than causing net mineral loss from healthy tissue, particularly when the rest of the diet supplies adequate fat, protein, and minerals from raw animal foods.

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For virtually all therapeutic and daily dietary purposes, Aajonus requires celery to be freshly juiced. The celery plant cannot be eaten whole for its primary benefits because humans cannot digest plant cellulose. "We are not herbivores. We cannot digest the pulp from vegetation. Vegetation is root, stalk, and leaf." Eating a whole raw salad of celery would over-alkalinize the intestines and waste digestive enzymes on indigestible fiber.

By juicing celery, the nutritional and enzymatic components of the plant's fluid are extracted without requiring the body to process cellulose. The juice is then effectively a direct mineral and enzyme supplement in liquid form.

The recipe book passages specify the following for celery in recipes: "fresh celery stalks (with leaves if not wilted)." This instruction appears in both the body salt regulation juice and the arterial/intestinal plaque removal juice recipes. The leaves are included as part of the therapeutic preparation as long as they are not wilted. Wilted leaves are excluded from these formulas.

In practical juicer instruction, Aajonus describes how to handle celery leaves: "Put the leaves in there, the curly leaves and it'll just stop up." He explains that when using a juicer, if you put the leaves in first or allow them to bunch up, they can stop up the machine. His solution is technique-based: "When I put celery in, I just go push it when I push it down this angle right here. So it just pushes down in there easily." The leaves, if they are wilted or if the celery has deteriorated, are excluded. Fresh, unwilted leaves are considered part of the complete celery stalk preparation.

When using parsley with celery in the juicer, Aajonus notes that parsley acts as a dryer and can help pull liquid through the machine: "Parsley dries it up. So I'll put a celery, then I'll put some cucumber or zucchini in there... and then I'll put the parsley in there, stalk in, and then it just pulls it through and it helps get the juice out."

Dried celery is explicitly rejected as a substitute for fresh celery. "If you do that with celery, something that's mostly H2O, you know, it'll break down very rapidly... it'll probably provide you with good oils and minerals and other things, but it won't have the enzyme activity." The enzyme content of celery, being water-based, is the most vulnerable to breakdown upon drying or extended storage.

Celery salt is specifically and emphatically rejected: "There's such a thing as celery salt. No, that's different. Once it's in a dried form, it's a concentrated sodium. It doesn't have the balance. Celery salt is actually salt. That's it. Just isolated sodium with other minerals. But again, it's rock. It's for plants. Feed it to your plants if you want more sodium in your food." Celery salt is characterized as simply another form of concentrated rock salt, stripped of the biological complexity that makes fresh celery sodium beneficial and non-damaging.

Because celery is mostly water, it breaks down rapidly once juiced. Unlike concentrated herbs that have high oil content and can retain their fragrant properties even after weeks in the refrigerator, celery juice loses its enzyme activity quickly in storage. The implication throughout all of Aajonus's discussions is that celery juice should be consumed fresh or very close to freshly juiced. The recipe book does address storage of juices with the use of unheated honey as a preservative, the juice formulas that include honey (3 to 4 ounces per 12-serving batch) are described as having honey to "help preserve the juices as well as sweeten them."

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While Aajonus does not devote extensive specific commentary to sourcing celery (compared to, say, cucumbers, which he addresses at length regarding waxing), the overall principle is that organic is preferred. Given that celery is juiced and not peeled, the quality of the growing medium matters.

He does note a broader context that applies to all organic produce: "With the laws that the FDA has screwed us with on organic, nothing is truly organic." This does not mean organic celery should be avoided, it means the consumer must be discerning. He notes that for cucumbers, which are now commonly waxed with petroleum wax even when labeled organic, peeling is essential. Celery does not receive the same waxing warning specifically, but the contamination context is relevant.

Aajonus gives detailed juicer technique instructions that apply specifically to celery and celery with leaves:

• Celery pushes through the juicer easily: "Push it down in. So easy."
• The angle of pushing matters to avoid jamming the blade on the leaves: "I just go push it when I push it down this angle right here. So it just pushes down in there easily."
• Curly leaves specifically can stop up the machine if not fed in correctly
• Parsley is used in conjunction with celery and acts as a "dryer", pushing parsley through after mushy vegetables like cucumber or zucchini helps the machine extract juice from those items

"Vitamix is not a juicer. It's a blender. Remember if you're blending in a bowl like this, we're sucking down into your food as it's blending. Oxygen. Guess what happens to your food? It oxidizes it. And guess what? You've lost a third of your nutrients. By blending in a blender. And you haven't separated the pulp. So we're eating all the cellulose. That we can't digest." A Vitamix or blender cannot substitute for a proper juicer when making celery-based vegetable juice. The blending process oxidizes the juice (destroying up to one-third of nutrients) and leaves indigestible cellulose in the drink.

For people in climates where celery is difficult to grow (such as Hawaii, where Aajonus notes celery "splits with all the rain"), he suggests substitutes. One specific suggestion is green papayas: "Juice papayas, green papayas... That could be your base instead of the celery, but you need some kind of leaf in there." He also mentions "sugar cane" in a context that suggests it may be a partial structural substitute. The key principle is that whatever replaces celery as the juice base must be accompanied by a leaf vegetable.

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"Celery, anywhere from 60% to 80%, sometimes even 90%. Parsley, anywhere from 5% to 20%... The main ones are celery and parsley. Always, no exceptions." Aajonus is absolute on this point. Celery without parsley is incomplete. The two serve complementary and synergistic roles:

• Celery provides the mineral base, the sodium regulation, the negative carbohydrate detoxification
• Parsley provides chlorophyll, vitamin E, vitamin D, and the substances needed to vitalize oxygen utilization in the body

"Parsley, and that should be anywhere from 10 to 20 percent parsley. The celery can be from 80 to 90 percent celery. So the parsley has lots of chlorophyll, vitamin E and vitamin D and a lot of other substances in it. It helps alkalinize the blood and vitalize the entire system. Helps you absorb oxygen, chlorophyll."

Comfrey can substitute for parsley and is described as "the highest in chlorophyll" of the leafy additions, but it is "hard to find." Either curly or Italian parsley is acceptable. "The curly leaf or Italian parsley, doesn't matter."

When some carbohydrate is needed in the juice, for people with bile problems, liver problems, diabetes, or those who have been on the diet long enough that high-celery juice is pulling too much sugar out, carrot juice is added. The celery's negative carbohydrate neutralizes the carrot's high carbohydrate content. The ratio Aajonus recommends most commonly is: - 80% celery, 10% carrot, 10% parsley - Or 80% celery, 10% zucchini, 10% parsley - Or 60% celery, 20% parsley, and varying percentages of carrot

"You add a little carrot and parsley to it, which are high in some carbs, brings it right to a good balance. So you make your major proportion celery and go from there."

After the initial detoxification phase (two to six years on the diet), Aajonus identified that a high-celery juice regimen was causing a collagen deficit. Approximately 20% of people on the diet were developing symptoms of MS and lupus, deterioration of connective tissue and nerve sheaths, because the diet provides little fruit and therefore insufficient collagen precursors. He corrected this by incorporating cucumber puree (not juice, the pulp with collagen precursors included).

This pairing means that over time, the celery percentage is reduced and cucumber puree is added. The updated formula after the initial phase: "10 to 20% carrot, 20 to 40% celery, 20 to 40% cucumber puree. And then you have the normal, let's say 10% parsley and maybe 5% cilantro." Or alternatively: "A third cucumber puree, a third carrot juice and a third celery. And 10% parsley."

For athletes or those who need to prevent a blood sugar spike from any residual carbohydrates in the juice: "I put an egg and a tablespoon of cream in my juice and I break the yolk with a fork." The fat from the egg and cream slows the absorption of carbohydrates from the juice and prevents a rapid sugar response. For athletes: "you need to put an egg in it, and a tablespoon of broth to slow it down... then you need to let it wait at least an hour, if you're an athlete, 45 minutes is fine."

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Celery salt is specifically and emphatically identified as not a derivative of celery in any therapeutically useful sense. It is categorized as simply another form of concentrated salt. "Celery salt is actually salt. That's it. Just isolated sodium with other minerals. But again, it's rock. It's for plants." It is explicitly distinguished from the sodium in fresh celery, which is in food form. Celery salt loses all the mineral balance, all the enzyme content, and all the water-based complexity of fresh celery. It is to be avoided.

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Aajonus repeatedly makes the observation that in modern animal agriculture, celery is fed to no animal other than humans. Veterinarians and animal nutritionists specifically avoid feeding it to horses, particularly racehorses. "They will not feed celery to anybody but humans." The reason, that it causes mineral breakdown in bones, is considered evidence that celery's strong mineral-pulling and negative-carbohydrate properties are recognized, even if not fully explained, in agricultural practice. The implication is that what is understood as problematic in perfectly healthy, well-mineralized animals is exactly what is needed in humans who are severely over-mineralized with improperly stored salts and toxic crystalline deposits.

Aajonus states repeatedly that FDA regulatory changes have made "organic" essentially meaningless. "With the laws that the FDA has screwed us with on organic, nothing is truly organic." While this primarily affects cucumbers (explicitly waxed with petroleum), the principle applies broadly: growing conditions, pesticide exposure, and treatment of vegetables labeled organic cannot be trusted. This is part of the broader argument for growing your own food whenever possible and for understanding that even if produce is sub-optimal in quality, the concentration of nutrients from juicing still provides net benefits compared to a cooked food diet.

Aajonus specifically acknowledges at multiple points that key information about celery's role in juice, particularly the instruction to maintain high celery (up to 80%) for the first two to six years to pull toxic sugars out, and the subsequent instruction to reduce celery and add cucumber puree, was not in We Want to Live or The Recipe for Living Without Disease at the time of publication. "This was left out of the book because I didn't understand it until the book was printed and published the last time. So it's got to go into a different book." He refers to a planned third book that would contain these updates. The updated formulas were shared in workshops and consultations but were not yet formally published.

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