Hi, everyone. I am looking for a trusty brand of magnesium supplements. Also, a list of food that contains high levels of magnesium. I'm not looking to over do it... but I want to make sure that I spend money on the good stuff. There are a lot of crappy supplements out there, and I want the real thing!
Thanks!!

If you go to [www.nutritiondata.com] and click on Tools and the Nutrient Search tool you can search different categories of foods for different nutrients.

I've done the searches for magnesium and put the links below but I don't know if they will work, you might have to do them yourself:

Top vegetables: [www.nutritiondata.com]

Top fruits: [www.nutritiondata.com]

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

if you wanted to supplement you could try angstrom minerals.

Good one Funky Rob!

I'd just like to add that when you go to the Nutrient Search tool page, at the bottom you will see you have the choice of searching "based on levels per 100-gram serving" or "based on levels per 220-calorie serving". You might try searches based on the grams as well as based on the calories. Also, in addition to searching the fruit category and the vegetable category, you can search the nuts and seeds category, because there are some higher fat foods with a lot of magnesium that otherwise you will not see (particularly avocado, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds.

Best wishes, -Ally



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2006 09:34PM by Ally.

Thanks. I went to those lists... it has mashed potatoes high up on the list! I thought white potatoes weren't good for ANYTHING! Is that wrong? and I am ashsamed to say that I hardly eat any of that fruit listed. It had bananas at #1, which I always put in my smoothies, but I hate eating raw. I don't eat anything else till you get allllll the way down to apples. I thought dried fruit was too high in sugar and hard to digest? As for the vegetables, it seems leafy greens and sea-vegetables are the best choices (as usual). I eat some spinach and some wakame. Is supplementing the best option for me, then? ...Consider that I am a picky eater and do not like mushrooms or peppers of any kind...
Thanks, everyone

I don't understand why magnesium is a problem for you. It is one of the easier requirements to meet on a raw diet. How do you know that your diet is deficient? If you are taking in around 2000 calories and eating a wide variety of fruits, nonleafy and leafy vegetables, nuts, and seeds, you should not have any problem getting more than plenty magnesium. It's easy to get enough magnesium even with 1200 calories per day.

Zinc may be considerably more difficult, however.

Dear rawproject,

Nuts and seeds can be really important in a raw food diet. IMO it's important to know that they supply a lot more than just fat. A very small quantity of nuts and seeds supplies a very huge quantity of magnesium.

I found the highest quantity of mangesium in hemp seeds. According to the USDA label on the package of Nutiva organic shelled hempseed, JUST 2 TABLESPOONS (1/8 cup) supplies 30% DV of magnesium (or 30% of the RDA - Recommended Daily Allowance).

Here are some other foods high in magnesium:

FOOD ------- SERVING SIZE - AMT. MAGNESIUM - % DV (% OF THE RDA)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pumpkin seeds --- 1/4 cup -- 184.5mg -- 46% DV (46% of the RDA)
Sunflower seeds - 1/4 cup -- 127.5mg -- 32% DV (32% of the RDA)
Sesame seeds ---- 1/4 cup -- 126.25mg - 31.5% DV (31.5% of the RDA)
Almonds --------- 1/4 cup -- 98.25mg -- 24.5% DV (24.5% of the RDA)
Peanuts --------- 1/4 cup -- 61.25mg -- 15% DV (15% of the RDA)
Walnuts --------- 1/4 cup -- 46.25mg -- 11.5% DV (11.5% of the RDA)
Banana ---------- 1 large -- 36.7mg --- 9% DV (9% of the RDA)
Banana --------- 3 large -- 110.1mg -- 27% DV (27% of the RDA)
Cucumber -------- 1 large -- 24.1mg --- 6% DV (6% of the RDA)
Oranges --------- 3 medium - 39.3mg --- 9% DV (9% of the RDA)
Wakame ---------- 1/4 cup -- 21.4mg --- 6% DV (6% of the RDA)
Scotch Kale ----- 1 cup ---- 59mg ----- 15% DV (15% of the RDA)
Spinach --------- 1 cup ---- 23.7mg --- 6% DV (21.4% of the RDA)

I got that information from www.nutritiondata.com by entering each food in the food search at the upper right hand corner. I mostly used the 1 cup serving size given at the top of each food page and divided the magnesium quantity by 4 to get the quantity for 1/4 cup. For fruit, I adjusted the serving size to change it to one whole fruit.

If you really get into it, you can go to the Pantry at www.nutritiondata.com and enter all the foods you eat in a day to see how much magnesium you get. Make sure and fill in the quantity space for every food or it won't be counted.

To answer your original question, IMO you shouldn't need a magnesium supplement.

Hope this helps. -Ally



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2006 08:35AM by Ally.

greens and cacao are extraordinarily high in magnesium

CHOCOLATE!

As any girl can tell you

Girls crave chocolate because prior to menstruation magnesium levels drop, leading to a crazy lust for chocolate and/or french fries. (potatoes are also high in magnesium)

I agree with innervegetable that greens are probably also a good source, because I notice that when I eat more greens I don't crave chocolate as much.

Hi, I've been enjoying this board for a while, but have not joined the discussions til today. I have been raw for over 2 years, only recently 'testing' cooked foods again. Anyway, my 2 cents worth on magnesium. I've used different brands and different forms. The one I highly recommend is Natural Calm. You can go to PeterGillham.com or a health food store. I use it for muscle pain relief, to keep bowels moving, and the calming effect. It's the only one that has worked for me. For some reason I seem to need a lot of Mg and can't get enough from my food (I mostly lean towards 811 but often with higher fat and the occasional cooked meal.)