Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 412 posts

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#201

Post by opportune »

lucb1e wrote: post #197
opportune wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue I have with soylent and some of their competitors is that they get to their RDA amounts by directly adding vitamins and minerals, some of which have low absorption depending on how they are bound - for example zinc and magnesium oxides have poor absorption compared to other zinc and magnesium salts - and which is not substantially better than just taking a multivitamin as far as I can tell.

> they get to their RDA amounts by directly adding vitamins and minerals, some of which have low absorption Do read the blogs from these companies. This is taken into account, and updated when new studies come out. From what I know, the reference intake was a starting point and they're definitely reading the research on real uptake from supplements. (Like, even you and I know about uptake issues, and it's these peopl…

Oh, I think I started writing my reply before you added that. Will take a look.

>Even you and I know about uptake issues, and it's these people's jobs to know about it. They're not stupid.

Sure, but their primary goal is to get people to buy their product, not necessarily to be as nutritious as possible. You could apply this same argument to the myriad vitamin and supplement companies which use the cheapest possible mineral salts even if the absorption is trash.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#202

Post by celticninja »

seaorg wrote: post #182
klyrs wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Two doctors have now ate nothing but meat, animal fat and organs for two years and posted their test results I see your n=2 "study" and raise the risk of colorectal cancer; an n=900 study with plausible causative link. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27655186

Your proof that I’m wrong is some garbage epidemiology study about colon cancer?

It's garbage when you disagree with it and solid science when 2 people who claim to be doctors post something on a web forum?

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#203

Post by C-x_C-f »

stavros wrote: post #179
changoplatanero wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my grandparents told me that chicken tastes less good nowadays I thought they were just old and had lost their sense of taste. Actually they were right though.

Everything tastes less good nowadays. When I was a kid, we used to eat tomatoes like apples, just biting into them, maybe with some salt. Nowadays supermarket tomatoes taste like water.

Anecdotally (though studies like [1] seem to confirm this), I've found that tomatoes are quite sensitive to transportation and storage. To me, garden tomatoes taste fantastic; the ones at the local farmers' market taste pretty good too; supermarket tomatoes are only good for making tomato sauce. I wonder whether the tomatoes you ate as a kid had been transported over long distances.

Also anecdotally, I haven't found any other fruit or vegetable that exhibits such a drastic contrast. Maybe persimmons, but I haven't had that many supermarket persimmons. For most fruits and veggies, I've found the supermarket ones tend to taste roughly the same as garden grown ones. Indeed, sometimes I prefer the supermarket version, e.g. for apples.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1658077X2...

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#204

Post by nerdponx »

noodlenotes wrote: post #157
esquivalience wrote: post #4

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…

I wonder if there's a relationship to the obesity epidemic, especially since it's not just humans that are getting larger but also lab animals, pets, and wild animals living close to humans [1]. What if we're compelled to eat more calories when we're not getting enough nutrients in our diets? This would impact any animals consuming lower quality fruits and vegetables. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/news.2010.628

Anecdotally, this has been my personal experience. I have gone through phases of my life where I ate a lot of junk food. I would feel constantly hungry during those phases, until I ate something nutritious, green and easily-digestible, like steamed broccoli or green peas.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#205

Post by cowmoo728 »

stavros wrote: post #179
changoplatanero wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my grandparents told me that chicken tastes less good nowadays I thought they were just old and had lost their sense of taste. Actually they were right though.

Everything tastes less good nowadays. When I was a kid, we used to eat tomatoes like apples, just biting into them, maybe with some salt. Nowadays supermarket tomatoes taste like water.

Tomatoes are particularly egregious. There are still tomatoes that taste good, but you won't find them in most grocery stores. Scientists are working on some genetic engineering to make a tomato that's mechanically strong enough to withstand commercial growing and shipping, but still tastes good. In the meantime, you have to search for real tomatoes at specialty grocery stores and farmers' markets.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/why-do-uk-tomatoes-taste-bad

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#206

Post by LAC-Tech »

hirundo wrote: post #3

I'd expect the same deficiencies to show up downstream in grain and soy fed cows, pigs and chickens. For meat eaters, that's an argument to spend more for grass fed beef, lamb, buffalo, and pastured chicken eggs. I don't know if such regenerative agriculture can scale up enough to feed everyone, but it can become a lot more affordable and accessible than it is now.

In Australia and New Zealand practically all beef is grass fed. I don't think I've ever had corn-fed in my life.

And yes, it is very expensive (more so in NZ than AU)

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#207

Post by spfzero »

changoplatanero wrote: post #178
jonplackett wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not just vegetables either - chickens are a lot less nutritious than they used to be. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2005/may/15/foodand...

When my grandparents told me that chicken tastes less good nowadays I thought they were just old and had lost their sense of taste. Actually they were right though.

People I know who grew up in Asia remark consistently that the chicken here in the US is larger, softer, and tasteless. They are used to smaller chickens and toothier meat with a stronger taste.

It is probably breeding practices here, to promote attributes other than taste.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#208

Post by rblatz »

wincy wrote: post #106
TrevorFancher wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much and which brand do you take?

I use this[0] not every day because I’ll get muscle spasms unless I eat a lot of calcium, but a few times a week seems to make a big difference. [0] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZD7R4RF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_...

Weird I take magnesium to prevent muscle cramps. I don’t supplement calcium at all.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#209

Post by sundarurfriend »

gus_massa wrote: post #16
ratsmack wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it does cover more than that and the current title is pretty close.

The guidelines https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ask to use the original title unless it's linkbait or wrong.

But in practice, even dang(/team) themselves sometimes change the title away from the original, to be more indicative of the article content, even when it isn't exactly linkbait or wrong per se.

Re: Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status

#210

Post by opportune »

skymer wrote: post #33
cageface wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeds are a great source of magnesium. Pumpkin seeds in particular have a lot of it and are inexpensive and tasty.

The paper says "The highest food sources of magnesium are leafy greens (78 mg/serving), nuts (80 mg/serving), and whole grains (46 mg/serving)..." So five servings every day of nuts and/or leafy greens would do it, but that doesn't sound like anybody's typical diet.

A typical serving of leafy greens is quite small, an adult can easily eat 2-4 servings at a time after they've been cooked.
Post reply on HN