magnesium - part 2

[Guest guest]

" Modern humans have departed from the diet the forces of nature designed for

our well-being in a variety of ways - our reliance on cereal grains, our

higher intake of sodium, our low intake of good-quality essential fats, to

name a few - but we've made no more critical step off the Paleolithic path

than the startling decrease in the mineral magnesium, along with an equally

dramatic increase in our intake of its " opposing partner " mineral, calcium.

 

And this imbalance has brought with it a plethora of modern ills. Let's

first examine what *was* through the lens of history, with a look at what

the diet of our ancient ancestors provided, and see how we measure up.

 

Paleolithic nutrition researchers Loren Cordain and Boyd Eaton have devoted

innumerable hours of thought, study, and analysis to the reconstruction of a

modern model of the diet our ancestors thrived on. By their estimates, the

magnesium intake of early man appears to have been as much as 800 to 1,500

mg per day. Interestingly, this amount of magnesium approximately equals

what Dr. Cordain estimates the daily calcium intake to have been at that

time, giving early humans a calcium-to-magnesium ratio of about 1:1.

 

Look at how things have changed; contrast those Paleolithic figures with the

intake of Americans today. We now on average consume a diet that provides

only an estimated 200 to 300 mg of magnesium and 1,200 to 1,500 mg of

calcium, making our modern ration not the 1:1 of old but 5:1 or even as high

as 15:1 by some estimates. Nowadays we're taking in five to fifteen times

more calcium than magnesium much to the detriment of our health.

 

Consider this list of known conditions that research has correlated with

deficiency of magnesium: heart disease and sudden death, diabetes, high

blood pressure, asthma and chronic bronchitis, chronic fatigue syndrome,

migraine headaches, muscle cramps, premenstrual syndrome, depression and

other psychiatric disorders, and susceptibility to the brain-damaging

effects of food additives such as aspartame and monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Quite an impressive list, and that's not even the half of it.

 

Our readers and patients in our clinic often ask us, " If you could take or

prescribe only one supplement, what would it be? " And the answer is simple:

magnesium. It's already been identified as a required cofactor for more

than three hundred enzymatic reactions in the body - and who knows how many

more have yet to be uncovered?

 

If its so important, you may be thinking, why don't you hear more about it?

Again, the answer is pretty simple: magnesium has no commercial lobby to

tout its benefits on the airwaves. Calcium has the diary lobby, fiber gets

its media boost from the grain producers and cereal manufacturers, vitamin C

has the citrus growers trumpeting its many benefits, but poor old magnesium

is a media orphan. However, waves of interest have begun to form, and some

previous citizens groups have begun to act on magnesium's behalf. What's

all the hullabaloo about? "

 

source: Protein Power LifePlan p205 - 206

 

To be continued,

Rob