If you sleep poorly or are under excessive stress, your body may be deficient in magnesium. Since our body does not produce this mineral, we have to get it through our diet.
The lack of one of the essential vitamins or minerals that our body needs can throw a whole range of things out of whack. And, while eating a balanced diet, you should be careful to stay in top shape, because there are some things that can "sneak up" on you and interfere with your health.
Lack of magnesium is one of them, which can prevent us from sleeping well. In 2014, nutritionist and sleep expert Shawn Stevenson from America published a book called 'Sleep Smarter' - about the importance of sleep for your overall health and how to make the best use of it.
According to Stevenson's research, the 80% population is deficient in magnesium, an anti-stress mineral responsible for balancing blood sugar and blood pressure, relaxing tense muscles, reducing pain and calming the nervous system.
If you don't have enough magnesium—one of the essential macrominerals the body needs—you can be overly stressed and suffer from severely limited sleep productivity. To make matters worse, our bodies do not produce magnesium naturally so we have to get it through our diet.
Research shows that magnesium supplementation can improve sleep quality, especially in people with poor sleep or insomnia. However, magnesium deficiency can be more serious than a few hours of lost sleep.
Magnesium is a mineral that relaxes your heart, the best source of magnesium is sunflower seeds, grind them into powder and sprinkle them on your fruit and vegetable salads. Too little magnesium interferes with the electricity that controls muscles and nerves, potentially leading to arrhythmia. Taking enough magnesium through plant foods because it stabilizes electricity and calms the heart.
The body of an adult contains 20 to 25 grams of magnesium. It is part of the structure of our bones, together with calcium and phosphorus, but in a much smaller amount. Magnesium is the basic ingredient of plant pigment (chlorophyll), just like iron is when it comes to hemoglobin in the blood. Magnesium has become an important mineral in the last few years, because it was discovered that it plays a decisive role in many physiological functions. It often happens that the usual diet does not provide sufficient amounts of this important mineral. The reason for this is the low consumption of whole grains, nuts (walnuts, almonds,...) which are rich in magnesium, as well as the impoverishment of the soil when it comes to magnesium. The constant misuse of artificial fuel in intensive agriculture leads to a biochemical imbalance in the soil and in the plants that grow on it. Plants no longer contain the amount of minerals they should have, especially when it comes to magnesium, because it is most sensitive to depleted soil.
Magnesium acts as a catalyst in numerous chemical reactions of the organism during the combustion of nutrients and in the production of energy. It has a particularly important function in the nervous system, regulating the transmission of impulses along the peripheral nervous system. A varied plant-based diet, balanced in terms of quantity and quality, supplies all vitamins and minerals. A plant-based diet meets all the needs for minerals and oligo-elements.
Magnesium deficiency is accompanied by very different symptoms:
General tiredness and feeling of weakness. Muscle spasms, tremors of the eyelids or other muscles (a phenomenon known as "muscle tremors").
Neurovegetative disorders - spasms in various organs, stomach pains, inflammation of the large intestine, pain in the uterus during the monthly cycle, feeling of pressure in the chest and palpitations.
Nuts, cereals and legumes are the most important sources of magnesium. A diverse plant-based diet largely meets all the body's needs for magnesium.
MAGNESIUM
Food Quantity in mg per 100 g
Sunflower 420
Almond 252
Soy 242
Walnut 185
Bob 164
Integral flour 109
Spinach 55
Papaya 40
Bananas 38
Oranges 36
Potato 26
White flour 21
Figs 20
Source: Healthy Nutrition, Dr. George Pamplona Roger
