Filling magnesium needs

Geschatte leestijd: 4 minuten A deficiency in magnesium is not uncommon. How do you prevent this and what are easy ways to meet your magnesium needs?

Magnesium Requirements

In my previous article on magnesium, I discussed the role of magnesium, symptoms of deficiency and excess, how much you need, and the likelihood of getting enough or too little.

Do You Need Extra Magnesium?

If you’ve read this background information, you know that the chances are real that you’re not getting enough magnesium. Before you randomly start taking magnesium, it’s important to check if you actually have a deficiency. Without knowing if there’s a ‘problem’, you can’t solve anything either. How do you do that? Just like I did in the previous article. You make a list of the products you typically eat in a day including the quantities, and then check how much magnesium they contain.

Product	Amount	Kcal	Proteins	Carbs	Fats	Magnesium
Bran flakes	100 grams	366	12	74	3	80
Milk (semi-skimmed)	500 ml	250	18	25	8	55
Bread	4 slices	336	12	64	3	80
Peanut butter	40 grams	248	8	6	22	64
Chicken breast	150 grams	167	32	0	5	45
Olive oil	15 ml	123	0	0	14	0
Rice	100 grams	347	7	79	1	12
Apple	1 piece	60	1	14	0	5
Broccoli	200 grams	200	40	4	6	40
Quark	500 grams	310	45	30	1	50
Walnuts	40 grams	264	6	3	25	60
Kiwi	1 piece	24	0	6	0	5
Total		2535	144	307	80	500

Let’s think back to Bob from the previous article. Bob needs 580 mg of magnesium. From his diet, he gets 500 mg. So, he’s short by 80 mg. Bob now has two options:

1. He eats more vegetables rich in magnesium. Think spinach and seaweed.
2. He supplements the deficiency with a supplement.

Option 1 is of course preferred. For the sake of this article, we’ll discuss both options. First, a list of products that are rich in magnesium.

10 Magnesium-Rich Products

Portion sizes have been considered. For example, cocoa powder is very rich in magnesium when viewed per 100 grams. But who eats 100 grams of cocoa powder? You usually take a few grams, so you end up getting very little magnesium [13]. A smart choice for Bob would be to eat 100 grams of spinach daily. This way, he fulfills his magnesium deficiency without consuming too many extra calories.

Product	Grams	Magnesium	Kcal
Spirulina seaweed	112	218	325
Radishes	116	197	314
Dried soybeans	90	225	385
Spinach	156	117	45
Sun-dried tomatoes	54	105	139
Almonds	50	70	292
Lima beans	160	61	170
Banana	170 (1 piece)	50	147
Brown rice	75	38	103
Figs	70	15	50

As you can see, many products still contain quite a few calories. If this is a problem because you exceed your calorie goal, you can choose to supplement magnesium instead.

Is Magnesium Supplementation Safe?

Before you start taking a supplement randomly, you want to know if it’s safe. The short answer is, yes. The risk of overdose is low. Your body always tries to maintain the magnesium level as optimal as possible (this is called autoregulation). When your magnesium levels are very high, your body excretes more magnesium and absorbs less. If your magnesium level is low, less is excreted and more is absorbed [1]. This doesn’t mean that overdose isn’t possible, it is. One of the first signs of a (too) high dose of magnesium (oxide) is diarrhea and gastrointestinal complaints [8]. If you can’t leave the toilet and just took a new supplement, it might be good to check if you’re not getting too much magnesium. Especially magnesium oxide is known to irritate the gastrointestinal tract. The Nutrition Center and the Vitamin Information Bureau both advise not to supplement with more than 250 mg per day [6, 7]. This seems like a good guideline to me. If you need to supplement with more than 250 mg, then the chance is very high that your diet is poor. Do something about your diet instead of putting a band-aid on a wound that really needs stitches. Be careful with supplementation if you have kidney disease. A high magnesium level is common in people with kidney disease [9]. This is because your kidneys are involved in the absorption and excretion of magnesium.

Which Magnesium Supplement Is Best?

First, let’s talk about what you don’t want. That’s magnesium oxide. Magnesium oxide is very poorly absorbed by the body. It doesn’t score much better than a gulp of air. Literally only a few percent is absorbed [2, 3, 4]. The unfortunate thing is that magnesium oxide is found in 9 out of 10 multivitamins. So, a multivitamin doesn’t solve all your deficiencies at once. So, you don’t want magnesium oxide. What do you want? Magnesium citrate. Small studies have found that citrate, as well as aspartate, lactate, and chloride, are better absorbed than oxide and sulfate [5].

When to Take?

Magnesium can be taken on an empty stomach or with a meal. Taking it with a meal provides better absorption [12]. Although this depends on what is eaten. There is evidence that calcium can inhibit magnesium absorption [10, 11]. So, it’s best to take magnesium with a meal without dairy products.

References

1. Jahnen-Dechent W, Ketteler M. Magnesium basics.Clinical Kidney Journal. 2012;5(Suppl 1):i3-i14. doi:10.1093/ndtplus/sfr163.
2. Firoz M, Graber M. Bioavailability of US commercial magnesium preparations. Magnes Res. 2001 Dec;14(4):257-62. PubMed PMID: 11794633.
3. Walker AF, Marakis G, Christie S, Byng M. Mg citrate found more bioavailable than other Mg preparations in a randomised, double-blind study. Magnes Res. 2003  Sep;16(3):183-91. PubMed PMID: 14596323.
4. Lindberg JS, Zobitz MM, Poindexter JR, Pak CY. Magnesium bioavailability from  magnesium citrate and magnesium oxide. J Am Coll Nutr. 1990 Feb;9(1):48-55. PubMed PMID: 2407766.
5. ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
6. voedingscentrum.nl/encyclopedie/magnesium.aspx
7. vitamine-info.nl/alle-vitamines-en-mineralen-op-een-rij/magnesium/
8. Bates-Withers C, Sah R, Clapham DE. TRPM7, the Mg(2+) inhibited channel and kinase. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2011;704:173-83. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-0265-3_9. Review. PubMed PMID: 21290295.
9. Hashizume N, Mori M. An analysis of hypermagnesemia and hypomagnesemia. Jpn J  Med. 1990 Jul-Aug;29(4):368-72. PubMed PMID: 2273620.
10. Hardwick LL, Jones MR, Brautbar N, Lee DB. Magnesium absorption: mechanisms and the influence of vitamin D, calcium and phosphate. J Nutr. 1991 Jan;121(1):13-23. Review. PubMed PMID: 1992050.
11. merckmanual.nl/mmhenl/sec12/ch155/ch155g.html
12. Lindberg J, Harvey J, Pak CY. Effect of magnesium citrate and magnesium oxide  on the crystallization of calcium salts in urine: changes produced by food-magnesium interaction. J Urol. 1990 Feb;143(2):248-51. PubMed PMID: 2299712.
13. ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/nutrients/report/nutrientsfrm?max=25&offset=0&totCount=0&nutrient1=304&nutrient2=208&nutrient3=&subset=0&fg=11&sort=c&measureby=m