Is It True That Chewing Celery Burns Calories?

You may have heard a piece of nutrition advice that sounded too good to be true. The idea is that celery — those crispy, crunchy sticks we chop up for mirepoix to improve our soup — is so low in calories that you actually end up burning calories by eating them. (This doesn't include anything you might use to jazz up the experience, such as ranch dip or a generous application of peanut butter and raisins to make that snack time staple ants on a log.) It's an intriguing proposition, but hold on a second before you get in touch with your inner rabbit: Whether you're chewing a celery stalk or a celery rib, it's not actually true, and even if it was, it still wouldn't be a good idea.

The factoid vastly overestimates how many calories you burn through chewing. While a stalk of celery does only contain about 5 to 10 calories, it's worth noting that chewing gum burns just 11 calories an hour. We've never tried chewing on a stalk of celery for an hour, but we're willing to bet it's not a particularly pleasant experience. Celery is a great snack if you want to lose weight, but it's not negative-calorie food.

There are plenty of claims that certain foods (or more commonly, drinks) can increase metabolism or help you burn calories in some way. Cold water is often cited, as your body has to warm it up (thus burning calories) —  but if there's any difference in calories, it's so minor as to be effectively nonexistent. And while limited research suggests that drinks with caffeine, especially green tea, could possibly help improve your metabolism, again, it's not a dietary panacea.

But what if there was one? What if there was a food that burned calories just by eating it? Well, it would certainly be low-calorie, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's nutritious. The whole point of food is to nourish and sustain you, to give you the strength and energy you need to get through the day. "Calories in, calories out" is a neat shorthand for what it takes to lose weight, but calories do, at some point, have to go in.