Healthy lifestyle - Getting more magnesium in your diet

Heather Little-White, Contributor

If you studied chemistry in school, you would have been introduced to magnesium in the lab. You may hear of magnesium in the range of minerals but you may not be sure of its role in your diet.

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body, with approximately 50 per cent of total body magnesium found in bone. The other half is found predominantly inside the cells of the body's tissues and organs. Only one per cent of magnesium is found in blood, but the body works very hard to keep blood levels of magnesium constant.

Recently, there is a growing interest in magnesium preventing and managing disorders such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, migraines, premenstrual syndrome and diabetes. Dietary magnesium is absorbed in the small intestines and is excreted through the kidneys.

Sources

Magnesium is found in a range of natural, unrefined plant foods absorbed from the soil. Callaloo, pak choi, spinach and other green vegetables are good sources of magnesium since the mineral is found in the centre of the chlorophyll molecule responsible for giving the green colour to vegetables. Other good sources of magnesium are beans, peas, nuts, seeds and whole, unrefined grains. Refined grains are generally low in magnesium, so you should be careful in your use of white flour which has the magnesium-rich germ and bran.

Wholegrain bread contains more magnesium than bread made from white, refined flour. The water you drink may be hard and has more minerals, including magnesium, compared to soft water, like rainwater. Tap water can be a source of magnesium, but the amount varies according to the water supply.

Deficiencies

You may not know it, but you may be falling short of the recommended daily intake, making you deficient in magnesium. It is easy to be deficient in magnesium if you are not eating a wide variety of legumes, nuts, whole grains, and vegetables. Very often, persons eat lavish amounts of refined, overprocessed foods or animal-based foods, soft water, synthetic fertilisers and destructive cooking practices, limiting magnesium intake.

Fertilisers

Since the modernisation of agriculture, the use of synthetic fertilisers has had a depressing effect on the magnesium content of food. Crops draw magnesium from the soil but farmers do not restore lost magnesium as they do in the case of lost nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Cooking methods

The way we cook our foods is important to the retention of magnesium. As much as one-half to three-fourths of magnesium in carrots and celery may leach out in cooking water. Green vegetables are loaded with magnesium, and they should be baked, steamed or broiled to prevent loss.

Magnesium-rich foods

1. Wholegrain bread
   
2. Brown rice
   
3. Spinach
   
4. Callaloo
   
5. Corn
   
6. Fresh fruit
   
7. Molasses
   
8. Tofu
   
9. Wholewheat
   
10. Bran
    
11. Raisins
    
12. Nuts, dried and roasted

Symptoms of deficiencies

Symptoms of insufficient magnesium intake include:

1. Tiredness
   
2. Difficulty with falling asleep
   
3. Irritability
   
4. Muscle cramps
   
5. Poor handling of stress
   
6. Loss of appetite
   
7. As magnesium deficiency worsens, numbness, tingling, muscle contractions and cramps, seizures can occur.
   
8. Personality changes, abnormal heart rhythms and coronary spasms.
   
9. Bad breath

To cope with two embarrassing conditions - bad breath and body odour - ingest magnesium with zinc and vitamin B6.

Stress and anxious men

Many young men of a Type A personality - always anxious, competitive-driven and stressed - may experience sudden heart failures because of a deficiency in magnesium. Stress has been shown to play a significant role in sudden death, ischaemic heart disease or sudden heart failure. Heart patients who suffered infarction linked to ischaemia or experienced blockages in circulation may have acute shortage in magnesium.

A close link has been established between stress, magnesium deficiency and sudden heart failure, according to magnesium specialist Bella Altura, PhD, of the State University of New York Medical Center. Altura posits that stress indirectly causes the body to excrete magnesium, resulting in magnesium deficiency in the heart muscle. An adult male requires at least 420mg daily and women need 320mg daily.

Magnesium-calcium link

Magnesium works closely with a sister mineral in the opening and closing of blood vessels. Magnesium is important in opening (dilating) the blood vessels while calcium is important to closing (constricting) the vessels. When there is a delicate balance between magnesium and calcium, the heart beats smoothly. When magnesium is deficient, the blood vessels will constrict and may go into a spasm, contracting suddenly, cutting off circulation to sections of the heart and may bring about heart failure. Closely related to low magnesium levels is prolonged noise stress, which leads to a decrease in cellular content of magnesium and an increase in calcium.

Healthy kidneys

The healthy functioning of your kidneys to prevent kidney stones is closely related to the balance between magnesium and calcium in the kidneys. An adequate intake of magnesium will prevent a build-up of calcium deposits which lead to kidney stones. Magnesium lessens the chance of stone formation. It has been shown that 500mg of magnesium hydroxide daily reduced the rate of stone recurrence in a report at a conference of American College of Nutrition in St Louis.

Blindness

Low magnesium levels create a complication called diabetic retinopathy, in which there are tiny haemorrhages in the retina of the eye, which can lead to blindness.

Heather Little-White, PhD, is a nutrition and lifestyle consultant in the Corporate Area. Send comments to saturdaylife@gleanerjm.com.

Functions

According to the Office of Dietary Supplements of the National Institute of Health, magnesium is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. Some important functions are:

1. Maintaining normal muscle and nerve function.
   
2. Keeping heart rhythm steady.
   
3. Supporting a healthy immune system
   
4. Helps with the absorption of calcium.
   
5. Keeping bones strong.
   
6. Regulating blood sugar levels
   
7. Promoting normal blood pressure.
   
8. Coping with stress.
   
9. Metabolising energy in active parts of the body such as the heart, brain and liver.
   
10. Synthesising protein.