Is Celery Good for Gout? Celery Seed, Juice and the Evidence

TL;DR

• Celery is a low-purine vegetable, about 15 mg per 100 g, and a fine food to eat freely with gout.
• The idea that celery or celery seed lowers uric acid rests mainly on test-tube and animal studies. There are no trials in people with gout.
• Celery juice isn’t a treatment. Celery seed extracts are supplements to discuss with your doctor, not substitutes for urate-lowering medicine.

Yes, celery is good for gout in the sense that it’s a low-purine, low-sugar vegetable you can eat as much of as you like. But the popular claim that celery, celery juice or celery seed lowers uric acid or prevents flares isn’t backed by good evidence in people.

That distinction matters because celery seed is a popular “natural gout remedy” online. Here’s what the research does and doesn’t show.

How Many Purines Are in Celery?

Very few. Urica’s purine chart lists celery at about 15 mg per 100 g, which is in the low band (under 50 mg). A medium stalk weighs about 40 g, so it carries roughly 6 mg of purines.

Vegetable	Purines (mg/100 g)	Band
Carrots	under 3	Low
Cucumber	10	Low
Celery	15	Low
Asparagus	~35*	Low
Broccoli	70	Moderate
Spinach	110 (published analyses range from about 50 to 170)	High

*One analysis; older tables list asparagus at about 60.

Even the higher vegetables on that list, broccoli and spinach, aren’t a concern. A study of 47,150 men published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2004 found that eating purine-rich vegetables was not linked to a higher risk of gout, unlike meat and seafood. For the full table, see purine content in vegetables.

Here’s what else 100 g of raw celery (about two and a half medium stalks) gives you, according to USDA data:

Nutrient	Per 100 g raw celery
Calories	14
Water	95 g
Fiber	1.6 g
Total sugar	1.3 g (0.4 g fructose)
Potassium	260 mg
Sodium	80 mg
Vitamin K	29 mcg
Vitamin C	3 mg

It’s mostly water, very low in sugar and fructose, and a decent source of potassium and vitamin K. It is not a meaningful source of vitamin C.

Where Does the Celery-for-Gout Idea Come From?

Celery and celery seed have a long history in traditional remedies for rheumatism and joint pain. Modern lab research has given that tradition some plausible chemistry:

• In the test tube, compounds from celery seed, including the flavones luteolin, apigenin and chrysoeriol, inhibit xanthine oxidase, the enzyme that makes uric acid. It’s the same enzyme that allopurinol blocks.
• In mice, a celery extract given at 1,000 mg per kg of body weight for two weeks brought uric acid in hyperuricemic mice back to near-normal levels.
• In mice and rats, celery seed extracts lowered uric acid in hyperuricemic mice and reduced ankle swelling and inflammatory markers in rats with urate-crystal arthritis.

These results are genuine, but they’re early-stage. Test-tube effects may not survive the trip through human digestion, and rodent doses are far larger, for their body weight, than anything you’d eat. Many foods look promising at this stage and then show little in people.

What Do Human Studies Show?

Very little so far. There is one small randomized trial, published in 2026. Twenty-eight adults with metabolic syndrome took either a standardized celery seed extract (75 mg twice a day) or a placebo for 12 weeks. In the celery seed group, uric acid fell from about 5.0 to 4.4 mg/dL, while the placebo group drifted up from about 4.9 to 5.2 mg/dL, a statistically significant difference. Side effects were mild, mainly occasional diarrhea and bloating.

It’s an interesting signal, but it has clear limits. The group was small, the trial was short, uric acid was one of many measures rather than the focus, and participants didn’t have gout. Their levels started in the normal range, well below the 6 mg/dL target used in gout care.

In people with gout, there’s nothing to go on. A 2021 Cochrane review of dietary supplements for chronic gout found only two eligible randomized trials of any supplement (enriched skim milk powder and vitamin C), and none of celery. Celery doesn’t appear in the American College of Rheumatology’s 2020 gout guideline at all. Even for cherries, a far better-studied food remedy, the guideline judged the evidence too weak for a specific recommendation. (See are cherries good for gout for that story.)

Is Celery Juice Good for Gout?

Celery juice has no studies behind it for gout. What it does offer is fluid, and staying well hydrated helps your kidneys clear uric acid. If a glass of celery juice replaces a soda or a sweetened juice, that swap is a real improvement, because it removes a fructose load. See best drinks for gout for how other options compare.

A few trade-offs to know:

• Fiber stays behind. Juicing strips out much of the fiber that makes whole celery filling.
• Sodium adds up. A pound of celery (about 450 g) contains roughly 360 mg of sodium, and juice concentrates the sodium from however many stalks go into the glass.
• Vitamin K adds up too. A pound of celery has about 130 mcg of vitamin K. If you take warfarin, the advice is to keep vitamin K intake consistent week to week, so talk to your care team before adding a daily juice.

Should You Try Celery Seed Extract?

If you’re curious, treat it like any other supplement with thin evidence:

• Don’t use it instead of treatment. If your uric acid is above target or you’re having repeated flares, the proven options are urate-lowering medication and the diet changes with real evidence.
• Talk to your doctor or pharmacist first, especially if you take other medicines. Herbal extracts aren’t standardized the way drugs are, and products vary in what they contain and how much.
• Watch for allergy. Celery is a recognized food allergen, and seed extracts are concentrated.
• Measure the result. If you try an extract, a urate test before and after a couple of months will show whether it does anything for you.

How to Eat Celery With Gout

Celery’s best role is as an everyday, low-purine, low-sugar food:

• Snack swap: celery sticks with peanut butter or almond butter instead of chips or crackers.
• Soup base: celery, onion and carrot to start soups and stews, with beans or lentils for protein.
• Crunch in salads: in chicken, egg or tuna salad to stretch a smaller portion of the protein.
• With dips: hummus or plain yogurt dips, for a snack that adds dairy or legumes.
• Stir-fries: sliced celery with other vegetables and tofu or chicken.

For more ideas that put these foods into full days of eating, see our gout meal plan. For other nutrients with better human evidence, see does vitamin C lower uric acid.

The Bottom Line

Celery is a good food for gout: low in purines, low in sugar, mostly water and easy to eat every day. But the claim that celery, celery juice or celery seed lowers uric acid rests mostly on test-tube and rodent studies. One small human trial of a concentrated seed extract showed a modest drop in uric acid in people without gout, and there are no trials in people who have it. Enjoy celery as part of your meals, treat celery seed extract as an unproven supplement to discuss with your doctor, and keep relying on the treatments that are known to work.

Sources

• Escobedo-Gutiérrez MJ et al. Effect of celery seed (Apium graveolens L.) administration on the components of metabolic syndrome: a clinical trial (Pharmaceuticals 2026)
• Li S et al. Anti-gouty arthritis and anti-hyperuricemia properties of celery seed extracts in rodent models (Molecular Medicine Reports 2019)
• Andrés M et al. Dietary supplements for chronic gout (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2021)
• Choi HK et al. Purine-rich foods, dairy and protein intake, and the risk of gout in men (New England Journal of Medicine 2004)
• USDA FoodData Central

This article is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Talk to your rheumatologist or healthcare provider about your specific situation.