It's hard to be a columnist who people want to read whilst nagging them to eat their leafy green vegetables, but I'll try anyway.
Why are leafy greens so important? Well along with beans, nuts and seeds, leafy green vegetables are a vital source of magnesium, and magnesium is essential for good health. It helps maintain your nervous system, relax your muscles (including in your blood vessels and heart), keeps your bones strong, normalises your blood pressure and is involved in energy production and protein synthesis. Sounds kind of important, huh?
In fact, low magnesium has been linked with all sorts of health conditions from cramps to heart disease to depression and even migraines.
Determining whether you have a magnesium deficiency can be a hard one, as only around 1% of your magnesium is stored in your blood and your body tries to keep that level fairly constant (50% is in your bones and the rest is in your cells). Sometimes if you are low in magnesium you will get tell-tale symptoms, such as cramps, loss of appetite, nausea and even abnormal heart beats. These symptoms however could also be caused by a variety of other things. So perhaps the best way to determine your levels of magnesium is to look at your lifestyle. If you don't eat much in the way of leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds and beans, then chances are you are low in magnesium.
Other foods can also increase the amount of magnesium you excrete (further depleting your supply), particularly acidic foods. Tea and coffee, soft drinks, processed carbohydrates, alcohol and even dairy foods all create acidity in your body. In order to neutralise this, your body will take magnesium out of your muscles and calcium out of your bones (An added benefit of eating more leafy greens is that they are alkaline and will help to neutralise your body's acidity). Also be aware that many prescription medications will lead to the excretion of magnesium.
Remember that the best way to improve your magnesium levels is through your diet and that you are more likely to get adequate Magnesium levels from properly fertilised organic food. Eat the right foods and you will not only get the magnesium you need, you will also get all of the things you need to help absorb and retain it. Nature is very clever that way! It is also very difficult to over-eat magnesium. If, however, your magnesium levels are very low or you are unwilling/unable to make the necessary dietary changes, then a magnesium supplement may be of some benefit.
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written by Dr Brett Hill, September 12, 2011
If it is a choice between eating non-organic leafy greens and not eating enough leafy greens I would say eat the non-organic stuff every time. Leafy green vegetables just contain so many nutrients and Magnesium is just one of them. For instance they are a great source of folate. Whilst ideally we would all eat organic stuff all the time I understand that money can be a factor. Just make sure that you wash your veggies well (a 10% solution of vinegar in water with a squeeze of lemon juice is a good way to do it) to get rid of as many of the chemicals as you can.
Question for you - I don't always have the ability to buy organic, should I feel guilty or feel that i'm not getting as much of my green leafy veg goodness if i'm buying from the local fruit and veg store or supermarket? Or should I still be happy that we're actually eating healthy meals including green leafy salads and veg at the dinner table?
Interested to hear your response
Many Thanks
Mel