Yes, broccoli is a good source of magnesium, contributing a significant amount to your daily needs, though not as much as super-high sources like spinach or pumpkin seeds, but it's still an excellent, nutrient-packed vegetable for overall health. A single cup of cooked broccoli provides a notable amount (around 8% of your Daily Value), making it a valuable addition alongside its other vitamins and minerals.
Among the WIC-eligible foods that provide magnesium are:
Achieving 100% of the daily recommended magnesium intake can be accomplished by eating foods rich in magnesium, such as:
Health Risks from Excessive Magnesium
Although the risk of acquiring too much magnesium from food is low among healthy people, high doses of magnesium from dietary supplements or medications can cause diarrhea, nausea, and abdominal cramping.
Magnesium is essential during pregnancy, and healthcare providers ensure adequate intake through diet or supplementation when needed. Magnesium plays an important role in regulating many vital body functions in the bones, muscles, metabolism and immune system, as well as during pregnancy.
Food Sources
Magnesium is found in plant foods like legumes, dark green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and fortified cereals. It is also in fish, poultry, and beef.
Magnesium: Low magnesium is associated with increased risk of miscarriage; one study showed 100% of infertile women who normalized their magnesium and selenium levels went on to produce children. Low magnesium may also be associated with birth defects. Multivitamins: lowered the risk of miscarriage by 57% in one study.
Ten common signs of low magnesium include fatigue, muscle cramps/twitches, loss of appetite, nausea, weakness, abnormal heart rhythms, numbness/tingling, headaches, anxiety/irritability, and insomnia, with more severe deficiency potentially causing seizures or high blood pressure. These symptoms often start subtly and worsen, affecting both physical and mental health.
Bananas are the richest fruit in magnesium. If eaten dried, its magnesium content is higher. More generally, dried fruits such as figs, dates and apricots are an important source of magnesium. Recipe idea: Try a banana-spinach smoothie.
For women especially, magnesium is important because it plays a role in hundreds of different functions involved in hormone regulation. Thankfully, increasing dietary magnesium intake and taking a daily supplement can reverse symptoms and optimize blood sugar levels, mood, sleep and menstrual cycles.
For drinks high in magnesium, opt for mineral waters, fruit juices (especially orange, cherry, watermelon), plant-based milks (soy, almond), and homemade concoctions using raw cacao, coconut milk, or magnesium powders mixed with water or smoothies, with hot chocolate (made with raw cacao) and herbal teas (like nettle) also being good choices.
Foods high in magnesium
Below is a breakdown of magnesium levels in these foods: Pumpkin seeds (1 oz): 74 mg magnesium. Chia seeds (1 oz): 95 mg magnesium. Salmon (3 oz): 23 mg magnesium.
Aside from the aforementioned avocado, another magnesium-containing fruit to consider is apples. Per the USDA, a medium-size gala apple with the skin on provides some magnesium (8.6 mg) plus a bounty of other crucial nutrients, such as 4 g fiber and 1.7 mcg of vitamin A.
There's no questioning the health benefits of broccoli, but we're expanding the list by mentioning that it's an excellent magnesium food. Keep your heart healthy with one small stalk of broccoli, which packs not only 5 g of filling fiber but also a significant amount of magnesium: 29.4 mg for just 50 calories.
Since beetroot juice is a key source of iron, magnesium, copper and phosphorus it makes for a healthy addition to the diet.
Cantaloupe: 428 mg per cup. Spinach: 271 mg per cup, cooked. Asparagus: 271 mg per cup, cooked. Tomato: 292 mg per medium tomato.
But some foods and drinks can make it harder for your body to absorb magnesium or even increase magnesium loss, so timing and pairing matter.
To quickly increase magnesium levels, focus on magnesium-rich foods like dark leafy greens (spinach, kale), nuts (almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds), seeds (chia, flax), legumes (beans, lentils), whole grains (quinoa, brown rice), and dark chocolate, while supplements or magnesium-fortified water can provide faster boosts if diet isn't enough, but always consult a doctor first.
If you're not sure where to begin, magnesium glycinate is an excellent place to start for sleep and anxiety. For sharper thinking or brain-based anxiety, try magnesium L-threonate. And for calming both your mind and body, magnesium taurate offers a gentle, heart-centered approach.
Since magnesium plays a role in neuromuscular transmission and muscle contraction, it has been hypothesised that magnesium deficiency may predispose to muscle cramps. Thus magnesium supplements are often recommended to prevent cramps.
Usually, the magnesium level becomes low because people consume less (most often, because of starvation) or because the intestine cannot absorb nutrients normally (called malabsorption). But sometimes hypomagnesemia develops because the kidneys or intestine excrete too much magnesium.
Most miscarriages happen because the unborn baby doesn't develop properly. About half to two-thirds of miscarriages in the first trimester are linked with extra or missing chromosomes. Chromosomes are structures in each cell that contain genes, the instructions for how people look and function.
For acute deficiency symptoms, such as muscle and leg cramps, supplementation should be continued even after the symptoms have subsided. This is because, depending on the severity of the deficiency, it can take several weeks to replenish magnesium stores.