Searching for magnesium-rich foods or recipes?
Unfortunately, they may be harder to find than you think. Especially if you’re going to shop in all the usual places.
Unfortunate... and dangerous too because current research shows that 2 out of every 3 Americans are magnesium deficient.1
Dr. Carolyn Dean (M.D. and N.D.), author of The Magnesium Miracle, is a recognized authority on magnesium’s vital role in preserving health and preventing disease.
In her book, Dr. Dean discusses how foods that normally contain magnesium (leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains) are mostly devoid of this essential mineral, primarily because of the lifeless condition of today’s soil.2
Dr. Dean points out that because most agricultural land in America has been overworked for decades (with minimal to no replacement of essential minerals), magnesium is rarely found in our soil today.3
And unlike vitamins, minerals cannot be manufactured by plants. They must be present in the soil for magnesium-rich food to grow and end up in our food supply.4
What about organic food?
Eating all organic food is definitely better – but even then, care must be taken to research that the organic farmer is well educated in crop rotation, adds the complete spectrum of minerals back into the soil, and tests regularly for mineral-deficiency.5
The problem with any kind of produce today is that you never really know how much of a certain mineral is in it. Charts detailing foods that are "magnesium-rich" are very misleading because they do not take into account what type of soil the foods were grown in.6
There is no standardized minimum amount required in our grains, fruits, or vegetables, so the nutrients in such foods are not routinely measured and never labeled. 7
Well no wonder magnesium deficiency is such a massive problem!
Dr. Dean recently wrote a blog entry in which she said,
"I called my book the Magnesium Miracle. But the REAL miracle is that modern man gets by as well as he does with so little of this essential nutrient. A hundred years ago — before we depleted our soil with greedy agricultural practices — the average person received at least 500 mg of magnesium a day, according to the US Department of Agriculture.Without supplementation, in 2009, even on a pure organic diet, you’re looking at only 150 mg at best. Those on a pure McDonald’s diet may be lucky to get 50 mg. And we may need between 600 and 900 mg... per day!"8
That’s why in her book Dr. Dean says she is "convinced that..." even with the best diet, "...to get enough magnesium today, you need to take supplements."9
A little history of how we got here...
In 1936, the 74th Congress was presented with the following statement:
"Do you know that most of us today are suffering from certain dangerous diet deficiencies which cannot be remedied until depleted soils from which our food comes are brought into proper mineral balance?"The alarming fact is that foods (fruits, vegetables and grains) now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contain enough of certain minerals are starving us—no matter how much of them we eat.
"The truth is that our foods vary enormously in value, and some of them aren’t worth eating as food.
"Our physical well being is more directly dependent upon the minerals we take into our systems than upon calories or vitamins or upon the precise proportions of starch, protein or carbohydrates we consume.
"Laboratory tests prove that the fruits, the vegetables, the grains, the eggs, and even the milk and meats of today are not what they were a few generations ago.
"No man today can eat enough fruits and vegetables to supply his stomach with the mineral salts he requires for perfect health, because his stomach isn’t big enough to hold them! And we are turning into a nation of big stomachs."
(Senate document no. 264, 1936. Quoted from the introduction of The Magnesium Miracle, pg. xv)10
(Shocking! Our congress ignoring this critical problem despite such a stark warning? Unthinkable! Well, it’s a good thing we don’t see this kind of blind negligence anymore. Oh wait...)
Each year since this hearing in the Senate, research has revealed more ways in which magnesium is absolutely indispensable to life.11
Sadly, the situation has only gotten worse with the introduction of food processing, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, insecticides, soil erosion, fluoridated water, pollution and environmental toxins.
Refining and processing of food strips significant amounts of magnesium:
| Percentage of Magnesium Lost During Food Processing: | |
| Refining of flour from wheat | 80% |
| Polishing of rice | 83% |
| Production of starch from corn | 97% |
| Extraction of white sugar from molasses | 99% 12 |
Excess Calcium Compounds the Problem
To make matters worse, not only are we getting less magnesium in our diet than we need, but we’re also getting too much calcium – throwing the balance off even more.13
Our ancestors’ Paleolithic diet included calcium and magnesium in a ratio of 1:1. Today’s modern diet has a calcium to magnesium ratio of anywhere from 5:1 to 15:1! And that excess calcium not only causes health problems of it's own, but also ties up our body’s magnesium reserves and leaves our body in an even more desperate situation.14
So, appealing as the idea may be of getting all the magnesium you need from a healthy, balanced diet, this simply is not realistic.
Jigsaw Health’s Magnesium w/SRT
Dr. Dean recommends Jigsaw Magnesium w/ SRT because it is a premier quality magnesium supplement that is formulated for maximum absorption and potency as dimagnesium malate.15
And unlike most other magnesium supplements, Jigsaw Magnesium w/ SRT does not cause diarrhea because of its sustained release technology.
Learn more about the many benefits of Jigsaw Magnesium w/SRT.
Cited Sources
- Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 24, No. 3, 166-171 (2005), Dietary Magnesium and C-reactive Protein Levels
- Carolyn Dean, The Magnesium Miracle, Ballantine Books, New York. 2007, p. 27
- Dean, p. 26
- Dean, p. 27
- Dean, p. 228
- Dean, p. 229
- Dean, p. 26
- http://www.drcarolyndean.com/?p=58#more-58
- Dean, p. 27-28
- (Senate document no. 264, 1936. Quoted from the introduction of The Magnesium Miracle, pg. xv)
- Iannello S, Belfiore F, "Hypomagnesemia A review of pathophysiological, clinical and therapeutic aspects." Panminerva Med, vol.43, no. 3, pp. 177-209, 2001.
- Dean (Chart) p. 28
- Dean p. 21
- Jacob Teitelbaum, From Fatigued to Fantastic, Avery Books, New York. 2007, p. 176.
- Dean p. 243
