Benefits of including magnesium in your daily diet
Benefits of including magnesium in your daily diet
By Megan Lyons, MSHN, BCHN, CCN, MBA
Owner of The Lyons’ Share Wellness
Benefits of magnesium
Magnesium is needed for over 300 documented metabolic reactions in the body, including protein synthesis, cellular energy production, muscular contraction, DNA production and repair, nerve transmission, and glucose and insulin metabolism. It’s not an exaggeration to say that your body simply cannot operate without adequate magnesium.
Unfortunately (for reasons we’ll get to below), estimates show that 60-75% of Americans do not consume adequate magnesium, and it’s rarely tested on standard blood panels. And even for the rare people who do consume enough magnesium according to government standards (which are 420mg / day for men and 320 mg / day for adult women), our magnesium is rapidly depleted by stress, exercise, caffeine, sugar, and refined carbs … the (unfortunate) staples of American life these days. Alcohol, proton pump inhibitors (for acid reflux), diuretics, laxatives, and digestive issues also deplete magnesium quickly.
What are the benefits of having adequate magnesium? Here are just a few of many:
- Magnesium helps Vitamin D and other nutrients work for immune health. Magnesium deficient people have been shown to have depressed immune responses.
- Magnesium helps regulate the stress response by increasing GABA and inhibiting glutamate. So, having low magnesium can result in anxiety, panic, migraines, fatigue, and depression
- Magnesium facilitates muscle contraction and relaxation, and prevents muscle cramps from exercise as well as menstrual cramps
- Magnesium regulates blood pressure via nitric oxide production and blood vessel constriction
- Adequate magnesium reduces the risk of all-cause dementia and pancreatic cancer, among many other chronic diseases
How to get magnesium from food
Historically, we could get all of our magnesium from food, so I venture to guess that your grandparents were not taking magnesium supplements. But the mineral content of our produce has declined by 80-90% in the past 100 years, so even if we were eating 10 times as many vegetables as our ancestors (which we’re decidedly not), we’d just barely get there.
I personally eat tons (8+ servings per day!) of the foods in the below list, and I don’t plan to stop. But because my body just loves magnesium, and requires a lot of it, I will continue supplementing my dietary intake with additional magnesium.
Here are several foods that are rich in magnesium:
- Pumpkin seeds (1 oz): 168mg
- Almonds (1 oz): 80mg
- Spinach (1/2 cup cooked): 78mg
- Cashews (1 oz): 78mg
- Black beans (1/2 cup cooked): 60mg
- Edamame (1/2 cup cooked): 50mg
- Dark chocolate (1 oz): 50mg
- Peanut butter (2 Tbsp): 49mg
- Avocado (1 cup): 44mg
- Potato (3.5 oz): 43mg
- Brown rice (1/2 cup cooked): 42mg
- Plain yogurt (8 oz): 42mg
- Salmon or halibut (4 oz): 32mg
- Chicken (4 oz): 30mg
- Beef (3 oz): 20mg
Magnesium in Vitaminis
Magnesium benefits almost everyone, and as we’ve seen above, modern life depletes it very quickly. So even if you’re eating some of the foods listed above, it’s likely that you’re not getting in enough! But who wants to take another supplement? And who can get their kids to take a pill or nasty powder? That’s where Vitaminis come in – getting 125mg of magnesium in a tasty sip is a gift to their immune health, stress response, heart and brain health, and more. The Immune Support Drink Shot is perfectly packaged with zinc and Vitamin C, two amazing immune cofactors, to help you and your family stay resilient and healthy!
About Megan
Megan Lyons has shared her game-changing approach with thousands of people through personalized functional nutrition consulting, corporate and conference speaking, group programs, and her podcast, Wellness Your Way with Megan Lyons. Being double Board certified in Holistic Nutrition and Clinical Nutrition gives her a unique perspective on blending the art and science that is required to help each individual reach their health goals. You can learn more about Megan on her website, Instagram, or podcast.
