The more I get into this raw food diet, the more I become intrigued at the health benefits. I am also learning more and more about each vitamin and mineral and how they interact with the body. I have also been reading up on having an alkaline foods vs acidic foods, an done of the minerals I keep coming across is magnesium. This mineral plays such an integral part in your body’s everyday activities I thought I would list some interesting facts about magnesium.

Periodic Table Of Elements

Without too much chemistry here, look at the periodic table of elements below. I have circled where magnesium is listed, and you can also see this is an alkali element.

Periodic Table Of Elements - Magnesium

Periodic Table Of Elements - Magnesium

Photo provided by Periodic Table Of Elements – ElementsDatabase.com

Magnesium (Mg) is located on the left side of this table, which makes it an alkaline element. This basically means it has extra ions to give off to make it stable. Items on the right side of the chart have a negative balance, which means they are looking for alkali elements to react with. Normally, there are no extra alkali elements, so these elements on the right side will cause the bones to release calcium to neutralize them (see where calcium is located on the chart – Ca). This is how osteoporosis begins.

Magnesium’s Role In The Body

OK, so what roles does it play in the body as a mineral? Well, there are over 300 different functions magnesium performs, or helps, in your body.

  1. It helps in the regulation of the absorption of calcium for the bones. Plus, over 50% of the magnesium in your body is found in the bones, so you can see how important it is to the bones.
  2. It helps to regulate the contractions of the heart. Funny part about this is people who have hard water in their house (hard water is water with increased amount of minerals – like magnesium) have been found to have lower heart disease (see this study for more information)
  3. It helps with the clotting of the blood
  4. Helps with protein synthesis
  5. Also helps with the activation of the B-vitamins
  6. And many, many, more things ……

Where Do We Get Magnesium?

So, now that we know how important it is, we need to know where to get it. Obviously, you can get a decent amount if you take supplements. You will need to take a whole food multivitamin, like the ones we take. This will ensure the body more readily absorbs the minerals and vitamins, as they are in their natural form.

The other source for your daily magnesium intake is with foods. The chart below lists some of the higher magnesium sources in foods:

  1. Blackstrap molasses (not necessarily raw)
  2. Raw green vegetables
  3. Raw Almonds and other nuts
  4. Avocado
  5. Dates
  6. Figs (we actually have a fig tree in our yard)
  7. Coconut
  8. Bananas
  9. Apricots

There are plenty more sources, but I was trying to stick to raw foods for you to be able to eat for magnesium. And, I think with a good variety in a raw food diet, you will eventually be able to stop taking the multivitamins. That should give you some interesting facts about magnesium and the importance of this mineral in our body.