Tag Archive for: magnesium intake

Magnesium Bonanza: Broccoli-Cauliflower Salad

/in /by

Lately I’ve written about magnesium, and I often talk about eating cruciferous vegetables every day. I decided to fall back to one of my favorite recipes from my mother-in-law, Ruth, modify it a little, and give you a recipe for a great salad you can enjoy this holiday weekend. Nutritional information is at the bottom.

Broccoli-Cauliflower Salad

1 pound (about 5 cups, chopped) broccoli
1 pound (about 5 cups, chopped) cauliflower
1 green onion, sliced fine
4 tablespoons sunflower seeds
½ cups mayonnaise
½ cups Miracle Whip salad dressing
¼ cups grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cups bacon bits or chopped bacon
¼ teaspoon vinegar (I prefer rice wine vinegar for the milder taste)
¼ teaspoon herb blend Mrs. Dash or a blend you prefer

Cut vegetables into bite-sized pieces, put into a large bowl, and mix together.

Mix together the wet and flavor-building ingredients. Pour over the vegetables and refrigerate overnight. Mix before serving. If you’re like me, I don’t like to wait, so it’s fine to eat it right away as well. You could use light versions of the mayo if that’s what you like, but at only 98 calories from sugar in the whole recipe, I wouldn’t bother with sugar substitute.

You can also adapt it to your taste. Add sliced cherry tomatoes or grapes, shredded carrots, chopped basil, sliced almonds, or maybe pomegranate seeds, or whatever ingredients you like, especially more veggies. And now I wish I’d used some purple broccoli—that would look outstanding! Other recipes add raisins or shredded Cheddar cheese, although those add more calories. The objective is to get your friends and family to eat it, so do whatever it takes to get there.

What’s the beneficial nutrients look like? First, all the phytonutrients that come in 1.5 cups of cruciferous vegetables plus some allium nutrients from the green onions. Second, the estimated magnesium level would be about 170 mg per serving. As another bonus, there would be 2,200 mg of potassium per serving, a nutrient we just don’t get enough of in our typical diet.

Compare that with the typical 80/20 burger cooked on a grill: it has no phytonutrients, 25 mg magnesium, and 250 mg potassium. We need that salad! And remember, I never said it had to taste bad. The most important point is to eat what your body needs, and it needs those veggies, even if mayo and bacon are along for the ride.

Remember to check the Health Info section of drchet.com for this and more delicious recipes. I hope you enjoy your salad and have a fun, safe, long weekend.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Protect Your Brain—Eat More Magnesium

/in /by

In the last Memo, we were left with the researchers’ question: if magnesium intake and BP were not related to a neuroprotective effect, what was? The researchers had some idea based on prior research: inflammation. Let’s take a look at what they found on the follow-up to their original study.

The methodology and subject pool of the study was essentially the same as the other study with the addition of several measures of inflammation, including hs-CRP. Researchers found that as magnesium intake increased, inflammation decreased. Subjects with higher levels of magnesium intake had increased brain volumes including grey matter and white matter, but not white matter lesions. This was an observational study, so cause and effect cannot be determined, but with close to 6,000 subjects, I think we can safely say there’s a definite relationship between magnesium intake and a neuroprotective effect.

How Much Do I Need?

The average intake of magnesium was 360 mg for men and 340 mg for women. A reader recently sent me a post in which a physician recommended that everyone should take 500 mg of magnesium every day. I’m not going to go that far because there’s still too much we don’t know. The biggest issue is we don’t know where the subjects got their magnesium; this study was done in the United Kingdom and they tend to eat more plant-based foods than Americans.

I’ve written to the lead author of the study to see if they plan to publish another study breaking down the contribution from foods and from supplements—I’ll let you know what he says. For now, I’m going to recommend that we increase our consumption of the top five sources of magnesium from foods. Those are:

         1 ounce pumpkin seeds
         3 ounces spinach
         1 ounce almonds
         3 ounces avocado
         1 ounce dark chocolate

If you’re interested in more information on magnesium and its benefits, become an Insider and you can listen to a replay of the last Insider conference call. Remember: Eat less. Eat better. Move more.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: European Journal of Nutrition (2024) 63:1807–1818

How Magnesium Affects Your Brain

/in /by

If there’s one thing we can usually agree on, it’s that we want to retain as many of our important memories as we can along with the ability to learn new things. That’s why a couple of recent studies on the mineral magnesium caught my attention. Both were published in the past two years by the same research group, but the results of one inspired the second.

Researchers used data from the UK Biobank Study to examine the relationship between magnesium intake, blood pressure, and specific brain volumes. Just over 6,000 male and female subjects ages 40–73 completed the 16-month study. Brain volumes were assessed by MRI and included grey matter and white matter lesions. Dietary intake was assessed at least five times over the course of the study via the Oxford WebQ food frequency questionnaire.

The results demonstrated that high magnesium intake was associated with increased grey matter and lower volume of white matter lesions; there was no relationship between blood pressure and magnesium intake. What is also interesting was that brain volumes were stationary if magnesium intake remained stable, but if magnesium levels were low and rose, there was an increase in grey matter. It’s unclear if reducing magnesium intake would decrease grey matter.

The question is why? Prior research showed that low magnesium intake is related to increased blood pressure, but that wasn’t the case in this study. What caused the positive outcomes? We’ll look at the second study on Saturday.

The Insider conference call is tomorrow night. We’ll expand on the magnesium studies, including what supplement forms may be better than others. I’ll also be answering questions from Insiders. Become an Insider before 8 p.m. tomorrow night and you can join the discussion.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: European Journal of Nutrition (2023) 62:2039–2051