Food Sources of Magnesium

Minerals from the soil - plants have an affinity for taking up certain mineral salts from the soil. With the aid of enzymes and soil-based microorganisms, they take up what the soil has to offer via their roots (in plants) and hyphae (in fungus). The minerals in these salts become complexed with the plant's various carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. And so, by consuming the plant or animals that have eaten these plants, we intake the various minerals necessary for our health.

The best food-sources of magnesium are:

•  Crude Rice, Wheat, and Oat Brans - added to breads and breakfast cereals

•  Dried Herbs

•  Squash, Pumpkin, and Watermelon Seeds - snack or in salads

•  Cocoa Powder (Dark Chocolate) - milk chocolate contains only ~25% of the Mg content of dark chocolate

•  Flax and Sesame Seeds, and Sesame Butter (Tahini)

•  Brazil Nuts

•  Sunflower Seeds

•  Nuts - Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, pine nuts

•  Molasses - substitute for refined sugar in cakes and breads

Poor magnesium food sources - include highly refined flours, tubers, fruits, fungi, and most fats and oils.

U.S. Nutrient Base

Mg is at the center of the chlorophyll molecule

The chlorophyll molecule contains magnesium -but produce will only contain Mg, if farmers have replenished growing medium with magnesium-rich fertilizers, which they don't typically do.

Model of the chlorophyll a molecule - the magnesium ion (bright green) visible at the center of the porphyrin group, is the coordinating ion in this chelated chlorophyll molecule.