Twitching eyelids and muscle cramps? Complain about it to your friends, and you’ll immediately get a diagnosis: magnesium deficiency. It’s true that an uncontrolled muscle tremor can be one of the results of deficiency of this element (and other electrolytes) in the body, but this is not the only possibility. What other signs can indicate that there is not enough of this mineral in your body? Why is it so important in the diet of physically active people and how to supplement it?
Signs of magnesium deficiency
Recognizing whether you have a magnesium deficiency, and whether supplementation or increasing your dietary supply will improve your athletic performance and well-being, is not easy. Unfortunately, the symptoms of magnesium deficiency are sometimes subtle and hard to detect. Experts even say that the best way to know whether a person is worth recommending magnesium supplements or taking special care of magnesium supply in meals is to carefully analyse the person’s daily diet. Unless it lacks magnesium, preventive supplementation is not introduced.
Particularly vulnerable to magnesium deficiencies are groups of athletes engaged in all sports that require constant weight control, such as gymnastics, dance, ski jumping and wrestling. Lower calorie menus often go hand in hand with an inadequate supply of this mineral.
Magnesium deficiency in the body of an athlete can give symptoms such as:
- muscle weakness,
- neuromuscular dysfunctions,
- muscle cramps and twitching,
- cardiac arrhythmia manifested during exertion.
Less characteristic signs of magnesium deficiency include:
- headaches,
- nervousness and irritability,
- memory and concentration disorders,
- lower resistance to stress,
- constipation,
- weakness.
“Genuine and clinically manifest magnesium deficiency is rare in healthy, nutritionally diverse individuals. However, a small, though affecting athletic performance, magnesium deficiency can occur in athletes who eat a lot of magnesium-poor foods: meat, eggs and refined carbohydrates, and avoid grain products, legumes and green plants,” say F. Nielsen and H. Lukski, authors of a scientific paper summarizing knowledge about magnesium in sports.
Magnesium demand
Evaluating your menu can give you the answer as to whether you are magnesium deficient or not affected. If you’re eating enough of it, there’s little chance that deficiencies affect you. As a daily norm of magnesium intake, for example 6 mg of magnesium/kg of body weight can be assumed, or according to the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) for the Polish population:
- for men aged 19-30, 400 mg of magnesium/day.
- for men aged more than 31, 420 mg of magnesium/day.
- for women aged 19-31, 310 mg of magnesium/day.
- for women aged more than 31, 320 mg of magnesium/day.
Regular intense physical activity raises the daily magnesium requirement by about 10-20 percent.
Why is magnesium important for sports people?
Magnesium is extremely important for physically active people as it:
- is involved in many energy production mechanisms in cells,
- supports the immune system,
- modulates the sensation of pain and fatigue,
- ensures the health and good functioning of muscles and bones.
Exercise redistributes magnesium stores in the body to meet metabolic needs. There is evidence that even a marginal magnesium deficiency worsens exercise performance and exacerbates negative consequences, such as increased oxidative stress. To some extent, this is a natural consequence of exercise, but excessive oxidative stress is harmful.
Doing endurance sports increases the loss of water and electrolytes (including magnesium) with sweat and urine. This also leads to higher magnesium demand. It increases by about 10-20 percent in physically active people, compared to people of the same age with a sedentary lifestyle. You don’t have to be a professional athlete to experience this. More magnesium is needed by people who: play tennis, run, do aerobics, but also walk at a fast pace in the mountains with a heavy backpack. This includes all activities during which you actually get tired. If the increased demand is not also followed by a greater supply of magnesium from the diet, you may experience deficiencies.
There is plenty of evidence and studies in which researchers have shown improved performance in athletes after introducing magnesium supplementation or adjusting the amount with diet. There are also studies questioning this positive effect and showing no change in sports performance after introducing more magnesium into the diet. The conclusion in the scientific community is one: magnesium in the form of a supplement has no benefit unless it is preceded by magnesium deficiency. How to prevent it? Preferably with a healthy daily diet rich in magnesium. It’s a guarantee that you will fully realize your potential.
The best sources of magnesium in the diet – TOP 30
Below you will find a list of the best dietary sources of magnesium per 100 g of product.
- Wheat bran 611 mg
- Natural cocoa powder 499 mg
- Brazil nuts 659 mg
- Chia seeds 335 mg
- Sunflower seeds 325 mg
- Cashews 292 mg
- Almonds 270 g
- Pumpkin seeds 262 mg
- Pine nuts 251 mg
- Molasses 242 mg
- Buckwheat groats 231 mg
- Soybeans 216 mg
- Quinoa 197 mg
- Beans 176 mg
- Dark chocolate 165 mg
- Hazelnuts 163 mg
- Walnuts 158 mg
- Whole grain wheat flour 136 mg
- Oat flakes 129 mg
- Pistachios 121 mg
- Pecan nuts 121 mg
- Chickpeas 115 mg
- Wheat sprouts 82 mg
- Beet leaves 70 mg
- Leaf parsley 69 mg
- Tofu 53 mg
- Savoy cabbage 47 mg
- Lentil 47 mg
- Arugula 47 mg
- Broad beans 33 mg
While the numbers don’t lie and you can clearly see what the best dietary sources of magnesium are, consider another aspect: the portion of the product you can eat. The values in the list above refer to the magnesium content per 100 g. One serving of cocoa you can manage to eat is 1, maximum 2 teaspoons, or about 50 mg of magnesium. Eating 100 grams of buckwheat groats for lunch is no effort at all, and that’s as much as 4 times more magnesium than in a serving of cocoa. So go for all the products on the list of the richest in magnesium, but keep in mind that the serving size also determines how much magnesium you will realistically take in.
Water – the best source of magnesium?
One more inconspicuous source of magnesium is worth mentioning, namely highly mineralized water, which can perfectly supplement the diet with magnesium while not bumping up the calorie content. It has been observed for years that regions that drink harder water have lower rates of heart diseases. Some scientists link this precisely to the amount of magnesium supplied.
We are no longer confined to only drink water with the mineralization level that is prevalent in the area. You can buy high- or medium-mineralized water. A one litre bottle can provide as much as approx. 200 mg of magnesium. That’s more than a whole bar of dark chocolate! You can read the exact magnesium content of the water in the table on the bottle. Highly mineralized water will be perfect for replenishing liquids during and after sports activities.
How to supplement magnesium in the diet after exercise and not only?
Here are some culinary tricks and ideas for increasing the amount of magnesium in your diet almost unnoticeably. Take care of this especially after exercise or in general if you have been training hard recently.
- If you are faced with the choice of a carbohydrate addition to your meal, go for buckwheat groats or oat flakes. Choose brown or wild rice instead of white rice, wholemeal rye bread instead of wheat bread, etc.
- Eat about 30 grams of nuts or seeds every day as a snack or side dish. Most magnesium is found in Brazil nuts, cashews, sunflower seeds and almonds.
- Buy good, natural cocoa and add it to oatmeal, pancakes and smoothies.
- Sprinkle your salads with seeds or bran.
- Eat legumes, chickpeas, lentil and soybeans several times a week instead of meat.
- Make abundant use of green leafy vegetables: add them to soups, make pesto, put them on sandwiches.
- Use pastes made from legumes and homemade nut creams instead of butter for sandwiches.
- Check the magnesium content on the label of the water you buy and choose one with high mineralization. Worth drinking is water with >150 mg of magnesium per litre.
Do you have to give up your pre-workout coffee? Does coffee actually leach out magnesium?
Coffee is often blamed for leaching magnesium out of the body. You couldn’t be more wrong! It turns out that caffeine from coffee not only does not leach magnesium, coffee can even provide it. The average brewed coffee contains about 10 mg of magnesium/100 ml (there are some differences here between types of coffee and types of brewing). In contrast, the intake of 400 mg of caffeine per day results in the loss of only 4 mg of magnesium in the urine. It seems that drinking coffee even has a positive effect and provides magnesium to the body. This was confirmed in another study, in which volunteers were given a coffee brew for 2 weeks, instructed to maintain their usual diet, and had their blood magnesium levels measured. Daily coffee drinking increased magnesium concentrations in the blood serum by about 4 percent. This may not be a significant improvement, but it clearly shows that coffee is not the reason for magnesium deficiency.