Yes, magnesium is a metal. It's also critical to the operation of every living thing. Are you getting enough magnesium in your diet? What foods hold magnesium?

First off, a little about magnesium. It's called an "alkaline earth metal" which includes calcium. We know how important calcium is to our daily diet. Magnesium isn't far behind. Both of these earth metals help to keep us alive.

Low levels of magnesium can cause a wealth of problems including asthma, osteoporosis, diabetes, hypertension, and far more. Magnesium is literally required for a human body to live. It's one of those things to pay attention to.

Adults should be aiming to get at least 400mg of magnesium into them each day.

Make sure you get a multivitamin that has magnesium in it. It's fairly hard to get a diet that has adequate magnesium every single day, unless you're a pumpkin seed lover. Pumpkin seeds have 606mg of magnesium for a half cup. You'd be all set if you had those for lunch every day! Most of us don't, though.

If you enjoy mackerel, a 3oz filet would give you 82mg of magnesium. But you'd have to eat a bunch of those to add up to your 400mg.

A cup of cooked soy beans could help - you'll get 148mg with those. Again, helpful, but not enough for your daily amount.

It might be time to have your evening snack be a square of dark chocolate. One square will provide 95mg of magnesium. Don't think about eating an entire bar a night, though. It'll bring other negative consequences to offset the magnesium benefit :).

So, yes, while I always advocate trying to eat a healthy diet where you get many of your nutrients naturally, sometimes it's a challenge. Make sure your multi-vitamin fills in those gaps so you stay healthy.





Lisa Shea's Library of Low Carb Books