A noble swindler in one of the short stories by O. Henry uses the following phrase to describe Rockefeller: “He sat at the table, gloomily stooping his head over a glass of celery juice”. In other words, an “average American” believes that “a glass of celery juice” is absolutely essential for the description of a millionaire who is sick and tired of living in the lap of luxury. The celery in this case indicates the ultimate blandness of healthy food.
The modern dieticians seem to have read that short story by O. Henry. Montaignaque, Atkinson, and Shelton – all recommend the use of celery, be it in the raw or cooked. The vegetarians extol the plant’s properties. I came across a book on a celery-based diet in one of the Moscow book stores. Celery in the book was referred to as a cure-all for any disease. However, I began to feel somewhat skeptical about the celery panacea after I took a closer look at a book lying next to the tome. It praised the wonders of kerosene therapy.
My memory obliged me with a pretty fresh recollection of my latest trip to a restaurant, which, according to a menu, served numerous healthy food dishes featuring celery. Celery is a very trendy food item at the moment. Restaurants and supermarkets offer a number of the so-called energy cocktails with celery, along with an array of freshly squeezed celery juice with a dash of carrot or apple, celery soups and salads.
Another flash of recollection carried me back to a festival of aphrodisiacs with celery salads and juice that were served for free to the participants in honor of the Winter Olympics. So is there any rational explanation of all that fuss over celery?
The first traces of a rational explanation can be found in the works of Hippocrates who prescribed celery as a remedy for soothing disturbed nerves. Marquise de Pompadour, a mistress of Louis XV, would drink a cup of hot chocolate spiced with celery and amber prior to a romantic rendezvous with the king. Giovanni Jacopo Casanova also included celery in his diet. The plant was believed to act as a powerful erotic stimulant.
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