Two weeks ago, I almost got thrown out of Wegmans, a hoity-toity supermarket just outside of Baltimore, the dreary city where Living Well Daily HQ resides.
Why did I almost get kicked out?
Was it for grabbing all the prepackaged garbage overflowing with GMO ingredients, throwing them into a pile, and starting a bonfire?
Or dumping all the produce into an inflatable raft, filling it with water, and declaring it a “pesticide pool”?
No and no. First of all, it would have taken way too long to make that GMO bonfire. Most of the grocery store would end up in it. And I don’t know anything inflatable that would be big enough to hold all that pesticide-dripping “produce.”
Actually, it was because I almost threw a fit in the supplement aisle while rummaging through bottle after bottle of magnesium.
Virtually every single kind of magnesium supplement available uses its magnesium oxide form as the active ingredient. Makes for a cheap product, but there’s just one problem…
Your body can’t absorb it!
Why is this so important?
Your body needs magnesium for over 300 biochemical reactions in the body, such as:
- Repairing muscle
- Nerve function
- Blood glucose control
- Blood pressure regulation
- Energy production
- Bone structure development
- Synthesis of DNA and RNA
- Nerve impulse conduction, muscle contraction, and normal heart rhythm
It could even help you live longer.
And while making sure you get more magnesium from your diet (by eating almonds, cashews, and leafy green vegetables like spinach) is a great idea, it’s hard to get all the magnesium you need, because the mineral content of our soil is depleted.
Said another way, foods may not have as much magnesium as they used to.
Up to 80% of Americans do not meet the recommended daily intake. And if you suffer from leg cramps at night, you’re most surely lacking in magnesium. Same if you’ve got low energy, headaches, high blood pressure, or poor blood sugar control.
So supplementation is your best bet. Perhaps you’re already going this route… which means I have more bad news for you. In fact, it’s the same bad news that was driving me to an angry rampage at the grocery store.
Most magnesium supplements are lousy (shocking, right?). More specifically, they use the magnesium oxide form of the mineral, which a study in the U.K. showed is absorbed by our body at only a rate of 4%.
Yup, 4%. You’d have to swallow nearly the entire bottle to get a daily dose!
There is, however, a simple way to make sure your magnesium supplements will work.
When you buy your magnesium supplement… make sure it says magnesium citrate on the label. If it says magnesium oxide, then toss it.
In fact, if you’re taking magnesium right now, make sure to check your label. You might be in for a very unpleasant surprise.
As for me, after pillaging bottle after bottle in the aisle, I finally found one with citrate. Calmness flooded over me… at least for now. Good thing magnesium helps lower blood pressure too.
Regards,
Nate Rifkin
Underground Health Researcher
