Magnesium heart

Magnesium heart is the element that gives protection against cardiac troubles and a host of other diseases; it is water-soluble so we need to get our supplies daily from our food, starting with breakfast.

In landmark research Japanese scientists report in the journal Atherosclerosis, April 2012 that a study of nearly 60,000 initially well persons over a 15-year period revealed that 2690 people died of cardiovascular disease. Of these:

• 1227 from strokes
• 557 persons from coronary heart-disease

This page was last updated by Bernard Preston on 4th October, 2021.

After evaluating the magnesium intake in their diets using a special questionnaire, they concluded that there was an inverse-correlation between heart disease and magnesium; and both ischemic and haemorrhagic stroke  too.

In short those people eating food high in magnesium had a fifty-percent lower incidence of heart disease and stroke.

Magnesium Heart

Magnesium heart in spinach is what gave Popeye cardiac-protection.

This is consistent with research about homocysteine cardiovascular in which it has been found that a toxic-substance amino acid builds up in the tissues in the absence of certain vitamins and minerals, and especially magnesium and zinc.

Homocysteine build-up is strongly correlated with arteriosclerosis, furring of the arteries, leading to coronary heart disease and stroke; and many other diseases. Read more in the classic book, "The H factor." Find it using Site Search.

Nutritious choice foods

Choice foods are those that give you an even-chance of reaching eighty with all your marbles and joints intact; and taking a minimum of pills.

Our choice foods page gives you some simple suggestions that can swing the statistics in your favour. Heart disease and type II diabetes are largely preventable if you choose the right lifestyle. It must include magnesium-rich foods.

Magnesium and blood pressure

A simple way to significantly increase the dietary sources of magnesium would be to add these foods three times a day. They all have huge other benefits too. They provide natural fibre for your constipation, help in lowering cholesterol, and add vegetable protein to reduce our reliance on red meat; and they taste great.

Plus they are low in carbohydrate, so they fit in perfectly if you are following one of the ketogenic diets; losing weight by enjoying low starch and high-fat meals.

Personally I have considerable difficulties with the classic Banting diet; we are going to see an uptick in the malignant-tumours methinks from all that red meat.

So if you are obese, then seriously consider this "modified Banting diet." Find it using Site Search; it's the weight-loss plan that I feel I can recommend. Learn too about net carbs.

The ketogenic diets do have merit but like all others they are simply not sustainable. Can you give up bread for ever? If not, do not bother starting. We believe it's the refined carbs that do the damage, not those in whole grains and legumes.

Foods that contain magnesium

Advisory. There are only two criteria for me when preparing food:

1. How nutritious are the ingredients?
2. How quickly can I prepare it?

This site is about slow food, made fast. How pretty it is does not come even vaguely into the picture, except when we are having guests.

We have a glut of TV programmes these days on cooking but there is one big problem. It takes so long, using precious hours we do not have; so we do not even attempt it. And, except for Jamie Oliver, whether it is goof for you or not is never mentioned.

So, yes, my oats above looks like a dog's breakfast; but it is very quick to make, tastes divine and is extremely nutritious. We alternate with stone-ground grits which is also rich in magnesium; about 10% of the daily requirement in one cob. But only if it is the whole grain.

Breakfast

• To a few tablespoons of rolled oats add half a dozen almonds, a few prunes, a little salt, a tsp of butter (not margarine, why?) and half a cup of boiling water. Leave to stand for half an hour, or microwave for one minute. Add a teaspoon of raw honey.
  

• Enjoy your breakfast by the pool this summer. More light means less depression remember. Do be careful; if your prunes have pits, they are very similar in shape to almonds. Do not give your dentist any extra work. If this gives you indigestion, then gently simmer the oats for five minutes.
  

• These quaker oats recipes are vital if you have a cholesterol problem; prunes give the scientifically proven best quick constipation relief.
  

• Eggs Florentine also makes the perfect magnesium breakfast. In fact this is my favourite summertime meal. By all means add a little tomato too, or a baby zucchini squash; garlic and chili too to give it some zip.
  

"Quick constipation relief" gives proven protection against colorectal disease too. Use that Site Search function.

Leave out the toast if you are banting. And drop a blob of butter on the spinach; low carb, high fat. Butter is back you know. Julia Childs would be pleased.

Want more minerals from your food? Magnesium from nuts and seeds is one good option.

Lunch

After radishes and pole beans, spinach is about the easiest vegetable to grow in the garden. And it goes on bearing for months and months. It is a great food high in magnesium. Young spinach leaves and radishes in a salad with Bernie's delicious spinach dip are amazing.

• Fresh spinach salad recipes ...

If you really want to be posh, then consider this authentic hummus recipe made of garbanzo beans, parsley and sesame seeds; hummus is certainly one of the best foods high in magnesium^[1].

It takes me only four minutes to make hummus. It oxidises within a few days, so food manufacturers load the supermarket stuff with chemicals. Then it tastes and is awful. Here is still more magnesium heart food.

Just 4 branching broccoli seedlings planted in the back garden in the spring will bear for months. After you have picked the main head, small florets keep appearing for an age, perfect for a soup. The beautiful yellow flowers are also very crunchy and will brighten any salad.

Just as important is that broccoli is the queen that rules over all in the anti-tumour stakes.

It does have quite a long growing season; plant them early in spring once the risk of frost is over. Better still, they grow well in late summer and into early winter. Choose the right variety with help of from your nurseryman.

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How to grow broccoli is a topic close to Bernard Preston's heart, literally and figuratively speaking. The magnesium and just as important phytochemicals like sulforaphane and kaempferol are three of many vital substances, mostly unknown to us.

Just the fibre that gets through to the colon feeding the microbiota and giving protection against the neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's is a good enough reason to put in a few plants this year.

Dinner

Steam or boil your veggies in very little water; research shows that about a third of the magnesium heart is lost otherwise.

Save that spinach or broccoli water to make a soup or gravy.

I used to devein our spinach when cooking it, but I do not bother any more; and there are plenty of nutrients in those stalks; it struck me as weird that we eat the stalks of celery and throw away the leaves, but eat the leaves of spinach and throw away the stalks!

The benefits of spinach are legion, especially it is rich source of magnesium for the heart; I am not exaggerating when I say we enjoy it at least 300 days in the year in one form or another. 

Magnesium gall bladder stones

Researchers at the Kentucky Medical Centre after following forty-three thousand men found that those who ate plenty of food high in magnesium heart had over thirty percent less gall stones.

What is more, eating foods that contain magnesium was more effective than taking if from supplements; probably because of the fibre containing the element.

According to the study, over ten percent of the people eating the common supermarket diet suffer from gall bladder disease.

Magnesium overdose

There are dozens of food supplement companies that will do their level best to convince you that the way to increase your magnesium heart is to purchase their products.

Magnesium, zinc and calcium are in a very fine balance in the body. Should you overdose on any one of them it can have very serious repercussions. Think rather of foods that contain these minerals providing the perfect ratio. 

Magnesium and arthritis

A magnesium deficiency also results in calcium deposition in the soft tissues causing arthritic diseases like chondrocalcinosis causing kneecap pain and possibly frozen shoulder.

• Chronic arthritis ...

Magnesium kidney stones

Renal and urology news reports that there is strong research confirming that raising the magnesium in your diet inhibits the formation of crystals in the kidneys. There is a snag though; many magnesium rich foods like spinach are also high in oxalate.

So, perhaps if you have kidney stones, as do one in ten folk following the modern American diet, there may be a place for moderate magnesium supplementation.

A sweet tooth incidentally, they report, increases your risk of kidney stones by more than 30 percent. Magnesium heart is good for the other organs too, obviously.

Magnesium and diabetes

Magnesium and diabetes are also strongly inversely linked. Research from Tufts University found that those who consumed the highest amount of magnesium were 32% less likely to contract diabetes that those who ate the least; that's massive.

They report that the best sources are whole grains, nuts, fish and vegetables.

Moreover, only 50% of Americans enjoy the RDA for magnesium heart. Is it any wonder that diabetes and cardiovascular disease are expanding in leaps and bounds?

100% whole wheat flour is difficult to get, unless you grind your own as we do, but cracking your own pecan nuts and enjoying fish and vegetables such as kale, spinach and Swiss chard is really not that difficult. Would you rather inject yourself every day with insulin?

• Pecans nutrition
• Nutritional value of Kale
• Recipes for Swiss chard

Find the links to those topics highlighted in bold by copying and pasting into the Site Search function in the navigation bar above. 

Magnesium and migraine

There is evidence that migraine sufferers are likely to be deficient in magnesium as compared to those who are well. However the research is not strong that supplements will be effective in preventing headaches.

According to research published in the Journal Headache, high levels are "possibly effective." Diarrhoea is a common side-effect, and it can be toxic for those with cardiac and lung conditions.

However there are no side-effects from increasing magnesium for our food, and it's a good thing to do anyway; it just might help prevent migraine headaches.

Bernard Preston

Bernard Preston is a wellness-nut and proud of it. I do not like pain and I have no desire to see my patients drop dead twenty years before their time with preventable diseases. Magnesium heart is for all of us.

Did you get that Tufts' research? Only 50% of Americans reach the RDA for magnesium.

More spinach and kale, plenty of freshly cracked pecan-nuts, fish at least twice a week and, dare I suggest it, your own homemade low GI bread; it takes me five minutes on alternate days. 

Is that too much to ask to save yourself from a triple-bypass and injecting yourself four times a day with insulin?

Get your magnesium heart intake up, and remember it is far better from your food than from pills. Yes, improving ones well-being does take some effort; rather that than the difficulty and expense of driving to the doctor.

Why no margarine? Simply because "hydrogenated foods" are bad for the heart. Find out more by typing the phrase into Site Search.

Growing and cooking green beans for vegetable protein and more magnesium is part of our agenda; they are so rewarding.

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