Just as many superheroes rise from humble beginnings and disguise themselves as ordinary folk, so does the easily overlooked celery live a rich secret life as a fabulous superfood. There it is, the one veggie the market never runs out of. You can cook with it even when it’s not-so-crispyfresh (but don’t). You can eat it straight-up. Your kids like it. How can it be that good for you?

But it is. It deserves to take its rightful place in the hierarchy of seriously healthy foods.

What does celery have going for it? Plennnnnnnnnnty. CELERY:

• Is rich in sodium. Wait… isn’t sodium bad? Not exactly. By sodium I don’t mean bleached, denigrated white table salt which has so many added insoluble components that it is actively bad for you. In celery, you find sodium, potassium, and other balancing minerals. In fact, the sodium in celery helps you take in and process other healthy minerals.

• Keeps your body hydrated. Think about it. Your body is a bath of salt water — in which the sodium needs to be balanced for ultimate health. Celery is high in electrolytes and thus good for drinking and eating after exercise.

• Is extremely heart healthy. For one thing, it contains potassium, which helps maintain stable blood pressure as well as phthalides which happen to relax arteries and veins.

• Calms and regulates the nervous system.

• Aids digestion. Think “fiber.”

• Helps fight cancers, especially leukemia, and intestinal and breast cancers. Why? Because polyacetylenes.

• Battles bloating because it is a mild diuretic.

• Protects you—the lining of your stomach, to be precise—from ulcers.

• Contains potent antioxidants like coumarin and polysaccharides. These help reduce inflammation by battling free radicals. What does that mean for everyone? It helps prevent or manage chronic disease and any illness worsened by inflammation (which is a lot).

• Reduces uric acid and increases urination (think detox).

• Lowers cholesterol.

• Is high in the following: vitamin A (leaves), and vitamins B1, B2, B6, C, as well as potassium, folate, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, sodium, essential amino acids.

• Has magic seeds. They are powerfully anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial.

Fun fact: Celery is vital to great cooking as part of the mighty 3-part mirepoix.

Yup. Generations of great French and Italian chefs have known that celery enhances flavor like crazy. It increases the natural sweetness in foods due to naturally occurring phthalides. Sautéed or roasted celery is as sweet and intoxicating to smell and taste as sautéed onion or garlic.

But the very best way to consume celery and all its nutritional gifts is RAW. The less you cook it, the more antioxidants and nutrients are preserved. If you eat nuts, try it with nut butter or even coconut manna as a snack.

What else? Think: celery leaf pesto (with walnuts instead of pine nuts to match the strong celery taste), or salads and stirfries accented with celery seeds.

A few final words of advice.

• The Environmental Working Group points out that celery is one of the most sprayed of crops, so eat organic whenever possible.

• Do not store for longer than 5-7 days (as with most vegetables) or it loses its volatile and health-benefiting properties.

• Don’t wash until before use to keep celery at its freshest.

• Cut off the white base of the celery and eat all the other parts. You can put the base into a cup of water, and crow another head of celery!

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