Magnesium-Rich Foods Are a Must for Your Diet

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Magnesium-Rich Foods Are a Must for Your Diet

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Did you know that magnesium is an absolutely vital mineral for your body? If not, it’s time to bring more in your diet. Here are the magnesium-rich foods that are incredibly good for your health.

Magnesium is a vital mineral. We cannot stress enough how important it is. It has its hand in hundreds of chemical reactions in your body and it helps you maintain a nice health status. It is important in almost every function and tissue in your body, helps prevent inflammation associated with some types of cancer, helps your heart stay healthy and can reduce the risk for a heart attack. According to a Harvard University, high daily magnesium intake reduces the risk of developing diabetes by a whopping 33 percent. It also helps with your mental health and reduces the symptoms of depression and alleviates a headache.

But wait! Don’t go to the pharmacy to get some accessible magnesium supplements, because they don’t work as well as actually consuming magnesium as part of your diet. Lucky for you, there are plenty of magnesium-rich foods out there, that will help you clear the 400 mg recommended daily value.

5 important magnesium-rich foods to eat often

1. Dark chocolate

See? Some great news already! You can have a sweet moment for yourself and get some magnesium in your system! Just because it’s dark, it doesn’t mean its evil. In fact, chocolate has many healthy properties, including a richness in magnesium that you need in your life. 1 ounce (28 grams) of dark chocolate or a serving have about 64 mg magnesium, about 16 percent of the recommended daily intake. Dark chocolate also works with the good bacteria in your gut, it protects the lining of your arteries and is also rich in iron, copper, manganese, and antioxidants.

Magnesium-Rich Foods Are a Must for Your Diet
Chocolate has many healthy properties, including a richness in magnesium that you need in your life.

2. Avocados

Bet you didn’t know that your early morning avocado toast was loaded with magnesium, right? One medium avocado has about 58 mg of magnesium. The magnesium is usually eclipsed by the high content of healthy fats in avocados, the high content of fiber, or the potassium, B-vitamins and vitamin K, antioxidants.

Avocados can help fight inflammation, improve your cholesterol levels and increase the feeling of fullness, thus keeping you away from the temptation of snack machines everywhere.  Add a few slices of banana to your toast and there you go: you have a magnesium-rich breakfast.

3. Nuts

More specifically, almonds, cashews, and Brazil nuts are very high in magnesium, so choose these instead of a magnesium supplement. A 1 ounce (28 grams) serving of cashews has about 20 percent of the daily recommended intake – about 83 mg of magnesium. So add them to your oats, throw them in a Ziploc bag and munch them as a healthy snack. It will be even better for you.

On a side note, Brazil nuts are so rich in another important mineral – selenium – that just two Brazil nuts a day will give you the RDI or recommended daily intake.

Magnesium-Rich Foods Are a Must for Your Diet
Make a nut mix in a Ziploc bag, especially with almonds, cashews, and Brazil nuts.

4. Legumes

Want to go for the big-league magnesium at once? Then try your hand at eating cooked legumes. Lentils, beans, chickpeas, peas, and soybeans are very rich in magnesium. A one-cup serving of cooked black beans contains about 120 mg of magnesium or 30 percent of the RDI.

That’s not the only reason to have plenty of legumes in your diet. They give you non-animal protein, and they also contain plenty of other nutrients, like potassium, iron, and the ever important for digestion dietary fiber. Legumes might lower your cholesterol, improve your blood sugar levels and decrease the risk of heart disease.

5. Seeds

Flaxseeds, pumpkin and chia seeds are all incredibly healthy and contain an astonishing quantity of magnesium. For instance, 1 ounce (28 grams) of pumpkin seeds give you 15 mg of magnesium, 37 percent of the RDI! That’s amazing and it makes me happy because I love eating pumpkin seeds. You can roast them yourself (link) and have them as a very healthy snack.

Seeds have other awesome nutrients like iron, fats, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and fiber. Flaxseeds reduce your cholesterol levels and may lower the risk of breast cancer.

If you’re convinced that you want to incorporate more magnesium in your diet, how about you also try these other magnesium-rich foods like bananas, whole grains, leafy greens like kale, spinach, collard greens, turnip greens and mustard greens, fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, and halibut, but also some tofu!

Magnesium-Rich Foods Are a Must for Your Diet
1 ounce of pumpkin seeds gives you 37 percent of the recommended daily intake.

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