Magnesium

You are tired, stressed, you have muscle tension, your eyes blink a little too often, you lack appetite, have headaches and trouble sleeping or you suffer from premenstrual syndrome. You are probably lacking magnesium or are unable to assimilate it.

 

Most French people do not consume enough magnesium in their diet, especially as unbalanced nutrient intakes can impair its absorption.

 

This is especially annoying because we need magnesium to absorb fatty acids!

 

Here are some tips:

 

What diet for a good daily intake of magnesium?

 

Before considering supplementation, it is best to balance your nutritional intake and ensure that your body gets what it needs.

 

Magnesium is found in:

  • Oilseeds, especially Brazil nuts but also almonds and cashew nuts
  • Bananas
  •  Cocoa, 80% minimum
  •  Pumpkin seeds
  •  Wheat germ
  •  Soybeans
  •  Dried fruit: figs, apricots
  •  Seafood, which has the advantage of providing other minerals such as zinc, phosphorus, potassium... in addition. Especially winkles and mussels.
  •  Spices, we don't think about it enough but cumin seeds, pepper, ginger, coriander also provide magnesium.
  •  Green vegetables, especially spinach
  •  Wholegrain cereals
  •  Seaweed
  •  Legumes

It can also be interesting to drink spring water rich in magnesium (be careful with the quantity of other minerals with which it must remain in balance), I say spring water! Mineral waters contain magnesium, of course, but they should be consumed as occasional cures so as not to strain the kidneys, which are likely to be overstretched by consuming too many minerals over time. It is also important not to forget to eat foods containing vitamin B6, which is essential for the assimilation of magnesium. Add yeast, oily fish and avocado to the foods mentioned above.

 

Luckily, most foods containing magnesium also contain B6! Nature is good ;)

 

The same goes for taurine which, in addition to helping the absorption of magnesium, also allows the latter to re-enter the cells when it tends to flee from them (in the event of stress for example). It is mainly found in seaweed, seafood, eggs, meat and fish.

If you have no particular health problems, your diet should be sufficient to balance your intake. However, it may be necessary to supplement these in particular situations such as metabolic syndrome, spasmophilia, type 2 diabetes or even a history of cardiovascular disease.

In this case, it is important not to choose just any type of magnesium, as some types of salt are not or only slightly assimilable.

 

Which magnesium salt should I choose?

  • Citrate: Magnesium citrate is the most interesting form because it is widely assimilated and has the advantage of being basifying. In addition, it hardly causes any diarrhoea.
  • Magnesium chloride: This is the most easily assimilated form, provided that you do not take more than 50 to 100 mg per dose, otherwise it cannot be assimilated correctly because of its laxative effect. It also has the disadvantage of acidifying the body.
  • Glycerophosphate is very well assimilated but it is still expensive. And beware, because the bioavailability of its phosphate is important, which can pose a problem for people with renal insufficiency or who consume a lot of phosphorus in their diet. Nevertheless, it remains the most interesting and, like citrate, its laxative effect is minimal.

Lactate, glutamate and aspartate, on the other hand, should be avoided altogether as they have potentially dangerous side effects. Magnesium malate is very interesting because of its bioavailability but also because it helps to detoxify the body from aluminium and regulates cholesterol.

 

What about marine magnesium?

 

You can find it in any food supplement shop. It is difficult to know its bioavailability because it contains various inorganic salts that are more or less assimilable. However, we can refer to magnesium chloride since this is the form it contains in the greatest quantity.

 

When and how to take it?

 

A magnesium supplement should be taken in two or three doses during the day to ensure optimal assimilation. The daily requirement for magnesium is around 300 to 500mg per day. This varies, of course, according to age and weight, but also according to each individual case. The duration of treatment should be at least 6 weeks.

 

Do not supplement if you suffer from kidney failure!