Primal Diet and Magnesium

[Fermenter Zym]

What do Primal dieters do to maintain a proper balance of magnesium and calcium from eating large amounts of calcium in dairy?

[cherimoya_kid]

I eat scallops.  They are very high in magnesium.  There are also natural mineral supplements that are high in magnesium.

[Fermenter Zym]

Let me know if I'm doing the math wrong, but the nutrition facts seem to say that there are only 55 mg Magnesium per 100 grams of Scallops. If there are 454 grams in a pound, you only get 250 mg of Magnesium from a pound of scallops. That doesn't seem like much magnesium relative to the calcium found in modern raw milk.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/7741/2

What are your thoughts on this?

[aLptHW4k4y]

Cashews have a really high magnesium content per calorie, but then they probably have phytic acid too so I'm not sure how much of that is absorbed.
I just take a pill of magnesium glycinate sometimes.

[cherimoya_kid]

Let me know if I'm doing the math wrong, but the nutrition facts seem to say that there are only 55 mg Magnesium per 100 grams of Scallops. If there are 454 grams in a pound, you only get 250 mg of Magnesium from a pound of scallops. That doesn't seem like much magnesium relative to the calcium found in modern raw milk.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/7741/2

What are your thoughts on this?

You make a good point.  I should actually probably supplement magnesium in some way.

[raw-al]

What think ye?

http://magnesiumrichfoods.com/

I suspect the seeds might be difficult to find raw but would be a better than the chemical choice.

Would be interesting to see if this made a difference

[Dorothy]

Al - I am drawn to eating a lot of those foods in their raw, soaked and dehydrated forms. I often feel like they have something I need in them. Maybe it's the magnesium? Thanks for the link.

[raw-al]

Al - I am drawn to eating a lot of those foods in their raw, soaked and dehydrated forms. I often feel like they have something I need in them. Maybe it's the magnesium? Thanks for the link.

I agree. I like most of those items. Maybe that's why. I'd heard somewhere that raw pumpkin was also useful for prostate issues.

[Dorothy]

I agree. I like most of those items. Maybe that's why. I'd heard somewhere that raw pumpkin was also useful for prostate issues.

I think it's the zinc that helps the prostate. I heard that pumpkins were high in zinc and that zinc helped the prostate so I started soaking and dehydrating pumpkin seeds and making them into a butter for my husband and since he's been eating it he has slowly but surely had to get up in the night to urinate less and less. We ran out and I was behind on making it once and he got worse again. But maybe it's also the magnesium that helps?

[Fermenter Zym]

I'm glad this conversation is starting. I emailed several resources concerning the diet of the Masai to ask about their Calcium / Magnesium ratios from a dairy rich diet and am waiting to hear back from them. I'll let you all know if I learn anything.

[RawZi]

That doesn't seem like much magnesium relative to the calcium found in modern raw milk.

    For years before I went on AV's raw primal diet I was more constipated than I ever read about from anyone's experience. I was told that was magnesium deficiency, and that magnesium deficiency runs in my family. So before I changed to primal diet I took magnesium supplements hoping it would relieve my constipation, and it did relieve it every time I took it.  Since I went on primal diet I have not been constipated, I have not taken magnesium supplements and I haven't taken anything else for constipation. Has you magnesium deficiency symptoms worsened since you switched diet? I think the primal diet eaten in amounts and combinations and order it is individually tailored, that deficiencies do not occur. In my case the diet doesn't seem to, as if it's more like a miraculous spark of life rather than just adding two and two to equal a bland four.  It could be different for you.  Which juices are you drinking? What does the rest of your food plan look like?

[Fermenter Zym]

    For years before I went on AV's raw primal diet I was more constipated than I ever read about from anyone's experience. I was told that was magnesium deficiency, and that magnesium deficiency runs in my family. So before I changed to primal diet I took magnesium supplements hoping it would relieve my constipation, and it did relieve it every time I took it.  Since I went on primal diet I have not been constipated, I have not taken magnesium supplements and I haven't taken anything else for constipation. Has you magnesium deficiency symptoms worsened since you switched diet? I think the primal diet eaten in amounts and combinations and order it is individually tailored, that deficiencies do not occur. In my case the diet doesn't seem to, as if it's more like a miraculous spark of life rather than just adding two and two to equal a bland four.  It could be different for you.  Which juices are you drinking? What does the rest of your food plan look like?

I have been thinking a lot about the juicing aspect of the diet lately. I have never been interested in that factor, but now I'm starting to think I can't digest vegetables well and may benefit from juicing greens. I typically eat tongue, liver, heart, roasts, steaks, coconut oil, and sea salt and have recently introduced raw kefir and raw kefir cream. When eating a lot of raw kefir cream, I don't have any problems with constipation, but otherwise I do.

What do you juice? Do you mix your juices with butter/cream?

[RawZi]

What do you juice? Do you mix your juices with butter/cream?

    I juice celery, zucchini, parsley, cilantro and spinach mostly.  I don't mix fat in. I do mix honey in occasionally.

[Fermenter Zym]

    I juice celery, zucchini, parsley, cilantro and spinach mostly.  I don't mix fat in. I do mix honey in occasionally.

How many veggies a day do you juice?

[cherimoya_kid]

What think ye?

http://magnesiumrichfoods.com/

I suspect the seeds might be difficult to find raw but would be a better than the chemical choice.

Would be interesting to see if this made a difference

Generally the minerals in nuts/legumes are not very bioavailable.

[Dorothy]

Even when sprouted?

[Joy2012]

I drink one glass of spinach juice daily. I think that takes of both magnesium and potassium.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=43

[Dorothy]

The thing that is difficult is that these things need to be thought of as a balance. Potassium to sodium, magnesium to calcium etc.

[cherimoya_kid]

Even when sprouted?

We're not really nut eaters, seed eaters, sprout eaters, or tiny-young-vegetable eaters.  Come on, you know all those give lots of people digestion problems. If you can't digest it well, you're certainly not absorbing it well.  Animals that are designed for large amounts of those foods have specialized digestive adaptions that we don't.

[RawZi]

How many veggies a day do you juice?

    I used to drink a quart a day when I started pd.  I haven't drank even sixteen ounces a day lately, no real reason for less.

[Dorothy]

We're not really nut eaters, seed eaters, sprout eaters, or tiny-young-vegetable eaters.  Come on, you know all those give lots of people digestion problems. If you can't digest it well, you're certainly not absorbing it well.  Animals that are designed for large amounts of those foods have specialized digestive adaptions that we don't.

I digest them well - so maybe I was designed to eat some and others aren't - oh maybe others don't have the same digestive fire or whatever. Maybe I'm not supposed to eat large amounts, but not everything I'm designed to eat has to be in large amounts. But I digest large amounts of baby greens very easily and feel very good from them.

[Dorothy]

    I used to drink a quart a day when I started pd.  I haven't drank even sixteen ounces a day lately, no real reason for less.

What kind of juicer do you have Zi?

[RogueFarmer]

is there any empirical evidence that people who eat high dairy diets are indeed mag deficient? While it makes sense that drinking too much milk might cause imbalances, is an imbalance really that much of a problem? How much of a problem is it? I bet actually more so for some than others!

If we are consuming some dietary magnesium perhaps to some extent our body will utilize more of the magnesium we consume and less of the calcium. I understand the basic logic of this argument however I wonder about how much of a problem it really is.

[TylerDurden]

I know of one RVAFer on another forum who ended up almost hospitalised as a result of getting magnesium-deficiency over a long period.

[aLptHW4k4y]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1542015

We conclude that increased intakes of calcium and phosphate decrease magnesium absorption by the formation of an insoluble calcium-magnesium-phosphate complex in the intestinal lumen.

Milk is very high in both calcium and phosphorus, so it's good to be cautious.