Do You Have a Magnesium Deficiency?
Blood tests are not a reliable way of revealing magnesium levels, as more than 90% of magnesium in the body is found in muscle tissue, bones and the heart. Muscle biopsy is used for accurate measurements, but it’s not a standard practice. However, looking at your lifestyle can easily tell you if your magnesium levels are optimal. If you experience stress on a daily basis and eat a standard diet, it’s safe to say that you can benefit from increasing your magnesium intake.
Drinking unnecessarily large amounts of water – something that is often advocated as a healthy thing to do is also a good way to deplete your magnesium, as your kidneys always remove all the magnesium during the first filtration process, reabsorbing 95% of it back afterwards. 5% is lost in urine.
Through modern farming and agriculture, soil levels of magnesium are progressively decreasing. Although fertilizers are added, foods still contain lower amounts of magnesium then a 100 years ago.
Does Magnesium Deficiency Affect Weight Loss and can it flip your fat-burning switch ‘on’?
Magnesium does have a small effect on weight loss, because it’s an integral part of energy production, since ATP(the chemical all cells use for energy) contains a Magnesium atom in the center. If you want to flip your fat-burning switch on, I suggest a more focused approach, like the one described in the beta switch book.
How Does Magnesium Deficiency Cause Weight Gain?
There are a lot of studies linking magnesium deficiency to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, both of which precede obesity. Magnesium is a critical mineral for energy production and lack of it makes it hard for your body to burn calories. It also increases fatigue, which limits your level of physical activity.
We have all heard or read that green shakes and green leafy vegetables help you lose weight. This is a complex process, but magnesium certainly does play a critical role in it. Since chlorophyll is the ‘green stuff’ in plants and it’s atomic structure is based on a magnesium atom in the center, everything that is green is a source of magnesium.
Other Benefits of Magnesium
Magnesium is found to reverse heart disease (link), improve insulin resistance, cure depression and boost energy levels. You can see why it is critical to make sure you have a sufficient intake. Magnesium is quickly depleted during stress and anxiety, alcohol intake and a higher water intake.
How to Replenish Magnesium
The two best ways are eating nuts & greens. Nuts come from trees (with the exception of the peanut, which is actually a legume), which have a deep root system that is not affected by the soil-depletion of magnesium we see in recent years. Leafy greens are also a good source, but you have to consume about three to four ounces per day to get any significant amount of magnesium, making blended shakes very suitable for that purpose.
100g of most nuts contain about 200mg of Magnesium, which is about half of the recommended daily intake.
Supplements work very well if you get the correct type. Magnesium oxide is very poorly absorbed as it is not water soluble. Magnesium citrate and other organic forms of magnesium work very well and have a high boo-availability.
In order to increase magnesium levels, you have to consume magnesium-rich foods daily. Make it a rule for 30-days to consume 100g of spinach or a few ounces of nuts daily. Your body will thank you! Make sure you check the magnesium levels of foods you consume, by using http://nutritiondata.self.com/ for example. Some leafy greens are still poor in magnesium. Kale for example, contains only 18mg per 100g, making you have to consume about 3 pounds of it daily to boost your magnesium levels.
You can also find a mineral water with a high magnesium content – look for brand that have 50mg/Liter or more. This is actually how we likely got our magnesium requirements for the majority of human evolution!
What you will notice
You will notice higher energy levels combined with being more relaxed, as paradoxical as that sounds. If I don’t take my magnesium supplement for a week or two and don’t eat magnesium-rich foods because I’m traveling I notice a huge difference and I’m unable to complete my usual workouts because of fatigue. Needles to say, this can definitely make you store more fat.
Wishing you great health,
Angelina