What? Am I not allowed to question anything you say? I am certainly not going to take one persons opinion as gospel.

I googled 'dietary magnesium' for an unbiased search criteria and then read the credible sources. If I typed in magnesium deficiency I'm sure I'll get a whole bunch of stuff that supports your argument. I want to know the facts from medical studies.

Your links say magnesium is important and I agree. I do not consider a link from magnesiumforlife as an unbiased reliable source though.

I still stand behind my original statement of "A diet low in refined foods should adequately cover any magnesium requirements"

Also I agree that meat, milk and eggs are poorer sources of magnesium than green veg, but the average person still gets almost 30% of dietary magnesium from these sources, so I would not discount them.

Trace element levels in soil can be quite lacking. That's why fertilizer is used to increase the levels of the deficient elements.

I would like to see magnesium content of a variety of current foods, determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Then I could see exactly what current day dietary magnesium levels are like. Do you have any information like this?

Ok I found a decent source.

USDA Nutrient Database (nice resource actually)

My first search was: Beef, top sirloin, separable lean only, trimmed to 1/4" fat, choice, cooked, pan-fried
33mg of Mg in 100g

Next was: Nuts, almonds, dry roasted, without salt added
286mg of Mg in 100g

So my 700gm steak and a handful of almonds gives me 517mg and I didn't even get to any veg yet.

Now I'm defiantly not worried about magnesium deficiency.

I just looked up cabbbage and it has less than half the magnesium that beef does. Two whole large raw cabbages is still less magnesium than a 700gm steak. So much for green leafy veg!

yeah if you eat a good diet your probably not deficient .. but the interesting thing is once you become deficient in magnesium you lack the ability to absorb magnesium from food

its not only diet, but its there over all life styles the deplete mg even further, such as stress, loud music, prescription drugs, etc.

so unless your eating a very good diet from birth theres a chance one could be low in mg even though they eat healthy now.

but i believe magnesium is vital and everyone could benefit from more.

I checked out the nutrient list for magnesium and a lot of the stuff I used to eat is on the first page.

I shouldn't have to worry about historical Mg levels either.

Isn't hard water one of the largest sources of magnesium (which we largely don't drink anymore)?

I always thought I looked way younger than many women my age. So a birthday girl Sunday confessed her age; and I added mine. (birthday approaching - 66th.) Another new friend popped in and said: "You wish!" I was floored! I don't need to lie about my age; but the new friend has met my grey-haired eldest daughter, and knows I'm a great-grandmother 3 times over. After I explained; she said -" You must have married young!" (I did).

But that'll teach me to be the slightest bit vain about my " youthful looks."

BTW, ignore kids. Mine used to twit me about things that happened millenia ago - you remember that, doncha Mom?

Absolutely true. The old addage, "you are what you eat" is the literal truth. Supply your body with the building blocks it requires and it will thrive in good health. Supply it with crap and you'll look and feel like crap.

Gary

Kinda reminds me of when I was pregnant. I weighed about 300 then and oddly, it "hid" inside me until about 7.5 months when it just popped up massively. I had to take the bus to my temp job and one day at a bus stop this little girl about seven with bright red hair was staring at me.

Finally she says, "You have a BABY in there?"

"Yes sweetie, I do," I replied, thinking to myself, isn't she adorable?

She pauses, looking at me a little bit more.

"How MANY do you have in there?" she asks.

The adults just busted out laughing all around me.

Stupid kid.

Yay! I'm made of dirt, water and sunshine!

That saying appears to be the only reason why some people say you shouldn't eat fat. "You are what you eat, if you eat fat you will be fat"

Well, if we take that literally, I should be growing feathers and oinking any minute now! Who says pigs can't fly?

Even in my pre-paleo days, when I was eating less than healthy, I was taking a calcium-zinc-magnesium supplement daily, so I was probably still okay, then.

Gary

Yeah, I guess, in that particular instance, the words aren't literally true, but, the effect of eating fat is exactly the opposite, though. This has been proven, not only by our ancestors, but by several studies and lots of anecdotal evidence that shows that eating fat - especially saturated fat - contributes to weight loss and a lean body composition.

Gary