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Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

111–120 of 412 posts

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#111

From the source: "The high rate of magnesium deficiency now postulated [5,6,7,8] can be attributed in part to a steady decline in general magnesium content in cultivated fruits and vegetables, a reflection of the observed depletion of magnesium in soil over the past 100 years [11,12,13]. A report to Congress was already sounding the alarm as far back as the 1930s, pointing out the paucity of magnesium, and other mine…

Sounds like a soil engineering problem!

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#112

I understand this seems mostly to be about soil depletion. I'm curious more generally if vegetables are also less nutritious because they are selectively bread for high water content and size. For example, its appeared to me for years that you vegetables you get on a Subway sandwich must have almost no nutritional content. They are all way paler than you'd normally see, and super watery. Thinking about it, I suppose…

Home grown tomatoes are typically much better tasting/more flavorful than the store bought ones, so I think there is probably something to this.

Supermarket breeds of vegetables are optimized for good looks and long shelf life.

Farmer market vegetables are optimized for flavor, because this is what differentiates them from the supermarket vegetables.

This makes the contrast all the more stunning.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although this can mostly be attributed to ripeness. Ripe tomatoes degrade extremely quickly so store bought ones are almost exclusive picked unripe and then artificially ripened at locations closer to where they are intended to be sold. This is also why canned tomatoes are generally considered superior for making tomato soups and sauces. Tomatoes harvested with the intention to be conserved are picked much riper sinc…

This is why, countrary to common belief, vegetables that are sold frozen are higher quality than fresh ones. My brother works in the industry and says if you can buy whole (with certain exceptions) and frozen, you have the best.

Does it need to be whole?

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#114

I understand this seems mostly to be about soil depletion. I'm curious more generally if vegetables are also less nutritious because they are selectively bread for high water content and size. For example, its appeared to me for years that you vegetables you get on a Subway sandwich must have almost no nutritional content. They are all way paler than you'd normally see, and super watery. Thinking about it, I suppose…

Home grown tomatoes are typically much better tasting/more flavorful than the store bought ones, so I think there is probably something to this.

There was a Good Eats episode or perhaps I came across it somewhere else, but tomatoes undergo a change when refrigerated and lose flavor. Due to this tomatoes should never be refrigerated.

This always explains why store bought tomatoes taste tasteless, while home green ones have actual flavor.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#115
post #7

If you put a whole cow into a meat grinder, the resulting paste contains every single micro and macro nutrient required by the human body, in their most bioavailable forms, many of which are completely absent in vegetarian and vegan diets. For millions of years, humans ate ruminant animals who’s herds they followed around, and almost nothing else. People who eat nothing but ruminant meat and organs become slim even i…

Without commenting on the veracity of your claims (which I don't really believe, and because they aren't sourced, it would require a ton of effort), your writing style is very compelling.

Hey carbo. I’m trying to make progress in biochemistry and pathology in a timely manner so that I have more to offer in these threads. And sometime soon I’m going to have references to mechanistic justifications. It’s just a lot for one guy. Can you imagine if you were convinced that you had the formula for snake oil and then everybody dismissed you for promoting snake oil? It’s like a bad dream.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#116
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can it be solved by simply adding more magnesium to the fertilizer?

I suspect it can be solved in many different ways, but when you sell food by the pound, it's much more advantageous to distribute your limited quantity of nutrients in as much produce as possible. This seems really, really hard to regulate.

Why regulate when you can market? If I knew that a brand of zucchini had high mineral content and flavor, I'd buy it at a premium

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#117
post #7

If you put a whole cow into a meat grinder, the resulting paste contains every single micro and macro nutrient required by the human body, in their most bioavailable forms, many of which are completely absent in vegetarian and vegan diets. For millions of years, humans ate ruminant animals who’s herds they followed around, and almost nothing else. People who eat nothing but ruminant meat and organs become slim even i…

I can't say nice things about carnivore diets but Keto has worked out very well for me. You couldn't pay me to resume "normal" or "typical" carb consumption guidelines. Blood work for multiple factors, weight and many other metrics are all steadily going into their correct ranges for me now.

The entire "food pyramid" is irrelevant and, based on my experience, utterly wrong. When you're bored just dig into the science behind it. Its a mess. So is the whole "saturated fat is bad for your heart" thing. The science behind that is even worse.

Get baseline medical tests done. Do your intervention and track the results. Get regular tests from a doctor. The difference can be significant.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#118
post #96

I’m not arguing against these findings but the whole subject of nutrition leaves me frustrated at times. Ever tried to have 100% daily recommended intake of every nutrient? I suspect almost nobody achieves that. And yet, despite this, and magnesium issues among likely many other issues, our species has never lived longer, grown taller, survived infancy, etc. more than we have now. That being said, as we understand an…

That was 20 years ago. Life spans are falling, as is height.

Not everywhere is USA. In most developed countries, lifespans were going up until start of Covid, even though our vegetables are watery too.

If I had to guess, I would say that life expectancy in USA would start climbing again if all the obese people managed to shave, say, 5 points off their BMI. Morbid and supermorbid obesity is horribly widespread there.

Of course, it is more likely that the rest of the world catches up than that the US slims down.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#119

When we moved to the Bay Area, I started going to the farmers markets and was blown away by the quality of the vegetables. Peas grown at Iacopi Farms in Half Moon Bay were crisp and sweet. Zuckerman's Farm grew a special kind of squash bred specifically for flavor (honeynut squash). Fresh plums pulled off of trees in San Francisco were just bursting with juice. Mashed potatoes made from La Ratte potatoes. And Delta a…

Check if a farmer market is held near where you live. It may be seasonal, but it's still better than dull vegs around the year.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#120

Should vitamin and mineral levels be checked during yearly checkups as standard practice? It seems like it would give us a lot of useful data and help people live healthier lives.

Vitamin D deficiency is fairly common, it would make sense to check for it.
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