Magnesium-Rich Foods: Diet and Eating Plan

OK, but I still want to eat the right food too.

Of course! Dr. Dean recommends the following for getting the maximum amount of magnesium from your diet:

• Eat a wide variety of vegetables daily. Always include greens such as kale, collards, spinach, and curly-leaf lettuce, and magnesium-rich herbs such as dandelion, chickweed, and nettles. (Cilantro and purslane also have high amounts.)
• Enjoy starchy vegetables 3 or 4 times a week, such as red-skinned potatoes, winter squash, corn on the cob, lima beans, and burdock root.
• Eat fruits moderately.
• Include a variety of whole grains: buckwheat, millet, rye, oats, amaranth, and quinoa.
• Fish, shellfish, organic chicken, meat, turkey, or free-range eggs can be eaten once a day as rich animal protein sources.
• Have beans, tempeh, nuts, seeds, and legumes as a vegetarian source of protein daily.
• Use fresh and dry herbs in your cooking and include lots of garlic.
• Use organic cold-pressed oils for your cooking: extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and sesame oil.
• Use organic butter in moderation.
• Take 1-2 tbsp of flaxseed oil daily.
• Use whole-grain breads and pasta.
• For sweetener use stevia.
• Drink natural spring, distilled, or filtered water only. [The more magnesium-rich, the better!]
• Enjoy organic herbal teas.
• Eat sea vegetables: dulse, nori, arame, wakame, kombu, and hijiki. All are exceedingly high in magnesium.
• Use natural raw, unheated nuts, seeds, and nut and seed butters, rich magnesium sources.
• Use a high-quality, mineral-rich sea salt.

Foods to Avoid (Read Labels Thoroughly):

• All refined and processed foods of any kind, such as cookies, doughnuts, bagels, white bread, luncheon meats, and soy protein powder.
• All refined and processed sugars, including fructose or corn syrup and diet products with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame (NutraSweet and Splenda).
• All dairy products except organic butter and free-range eggs.
• Regular and decaffeinated coffee and black tea.
• Any foods containing hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils or trans fatty acids.
• All alcoholic beverages.
• Pasteurized fruit juices and sodas.
• Foods containing MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and chemical preservatives.
• Commercial iodized salt.

A Magnesium Eating Plan:

(From Dr. Dean’s book, The Magnesium Miracle)

Upon Rising: Juice of 1/2 - 1 fresh lemon in warm water. Sweeten with stevia.

Breakfast:

• Crockpot cereal with flaxseed oil and fresh or frozen blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, banana, peach, or pear.
• Choose two grains, one nut, one seed from: buckwheat, millet, rye, oats, amaranth, quinoa, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, cashews, filberts, walnuts, pecans.
• For one person, put 2 oz of dry mixture in 5 oz of water in a 1-quart Crockpot. Cook overnight. In the morning place in a bowl, add 2-4 oz fruit, mix, and add 2 tbsp of flaxseed oil or 1 tbsp of organic butter, or 2 tbsp of ground flaxseeds (ground fresh in a coffee grinder). You may add rice milk, almond milk, or small amounts of soy milk as needed. For extra magnesium, sprinkle on wheat germ (kept in the freezer).

Substitutions:

1. Instead of using a Crockpot, you can soak 2 ox of grain mixture overnight in 5 oz. of water, with or without 2 tbsp of plain yogurt. In the morning bring to a boil and let simmer on the lowest setting for 20 minutes. You may have to add more water to avoid dryness. Serve with 2 tbsp ground flaxseeds (ground fresh in a coffee grinder).
2. Instead of soaking overnight, cook 2 oz of grain mixture in 6 oz of water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 30 min.

Lunch [Choose one]:

• Brown rice and vegetables. Cooked with 2 oz dulse or other sea vegetables.
• Leafy green salad, soup with added sea vegetables, and Essene sprouted bread or Ezekiel bread.
• Fish, greens (collards, spinach, swiss chard), and salad.
• Egg omelet with sautéed vegetables.
• Chicken with vegetables.

Dinner [Choose one]:

• Soup (with sea vegetables) and salad.
• Stir-fried grains (leftover grains from breakfast) and vegetables.
• Roasted vegetables with wild rice.
• Salad with cooked organic legumes (kidney beans, lentils, black beans, chickpeas).
• Wheat-free pasta (rice, spelt, kamut) with pesto, tomato sauce, and green vegetables.
• Mixed salad with avocado.

Snacks:

• Raw vegetables.
• Dried fruit (prunes and figs).
• Shelled nuts and seeds (raw, not processed or salted).
• Backed blue corn chips.
• Popcorn.

Drinks:

• Pure, clean water that is high in magnesium and low in calcium.
• Green tea.
• Freshly squeezed lemon juice in water.
• Cranberry juice sweetened with stevia.
• Herbal teas.
• Kukicha (roasted twig tea).¹

Like Dr. Dean says though...

Getting enough magnesium from your food alone (even on the most magnesium-rich diet) is nearly impossible. She encourages everyone to take a highly absorbable magnesium supplement in order to give your body what it needs for optimal health.²

Jigsaw Health’s Magnesium w/SRT

Dr. Dean recommends Jigsaw Magnesium w/ SRT because it is a premier quality magnesium supplement that is formulated for maximum absorption and potency as dimagnesium malate.³

And unlike most other magnesium supplements, Jigsaw Magnesium w/ SRT avoids diarrhea because of it's sustained release technology.

Learn more about the many benefits of Jigsaw Magnesium w/SRT.

Return to "Magnesium-Rich Food: Is it a Contradiction in Terms?" article.

Cited Sources

1. Dean, p. 234-238
2. 16. Dean p. 243
3. 17. Dean, p. 27-28