Vegan Calcium and Magnesium Supplements

For most people, taking a magnesium supplement or calcium pill can seem easier than changing the diet in any way, but what does this actually gain you? As absorption varies from person to person it isn’t a hard and fast rule, but generally, taking a cheap, supermarket, 500mg magnesium oxide supplement will get you about 150mg of actual absorbed magnesium. There is a reason it’s cheap, but that doesn’t make it totally useless… read on.

Magnesium Absorption from Supplements

Other forms of magnesium are better absorbed, such as citrate, malate, bisglycinate. And in food form, even better, as you get a whole load of other goodies in there too. But don’t go downing ten or so magnesium capsules, particularly magnesium oxide, as you’ll give yourself some serious diarrhoea, cramps, and probably headaches. Magnesium oxide is quite poorly absorbed, which makes it bad for getting your blood magnesium levels raised, but great for helping with constipation. The oxide form drags water from the rest of the body into the bowel, which is why an excess of it can cause diarrhoea. Other forms absorb better and don’t have this effect so much, making them pretty useless for constipation, but great for boosting blood magnesium levels. Choose your weapon carefully when correcting any magnesium deficit.

Vegan Food Sources of Magnesium

Magnesium could always be boosted by eating more pumpkin seeds (535mg/100g wet weight), or by adding sesame seeds (370mg/100g wet weight) to salad, granola, and baked goods. If I was a winkle-eater, pescetarian rather than vegan, they would give me 360mg/100g wet weight), which is lower than the vegan magnesium sources and are subject to caution over potential heavy metal contamination. Here is a handy list of vegan food sources of magnesium.

Coming Soon: A whole truck load of updated links to good vegan magnesium and calcium supplements.

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