If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably never give much thought to magnesium. I mean sure, you might’ve heard it around in health talks or online articles, but you’ve never sat down and thought ‘am I getting enough?’
That’s because unlike protein or calcium, most people don’t seem to care whether or not you get enough magnesium. Or, maybe people believe it’s just not as hard to find.
Luckily for you though, you’ve stumbled onto a blogger who’s making a Nutrient series, so you’re going to learn about it! (Like I did, when writing this article)
Magnesium is a mineral that is naturally occurring in many different foods. It’s important for humans because it’s an essential nutrient for certain body processes, such as: heart rhythm, muscle contractions, blood pressure control, bone health and creative energy! (Yes, that last one is real)
Magnesium being a naturally occurring mineral is a great thing, because it means you won’t have to go looking for supplements or fortified foods to get your daily dose!
What is the daily dose for magnesium? It’s estimated adults need between 310-420mg every day.
That might sound like a lot, but I guarantee if you add the following foods to your diet – or already have a few – it won’t be as big of a challenge as you think:
Starting in the top left-hand corner and moving clockwise:
Pumpkin Seeds = 1,200mg
Chia Seeds = 888mg
Almonds = 640mg
Cashews = 576mg
Dark Chocolate = 512mg
Peanuts = 399mg
Spinach (cooked) = 156mg
Swiss Chard (cooked) = 150mg
Black Beans = 120mg
Quinoa (cooked) = 120mg
Shredded Wheat = 112mg
Edamame (cooked) = 100mg
Lima Beans = 80mg
Green Pas = 62mg
Sweet Corn = 54mg
Collard Greens = 50mg
Avocado = 58mg (1 whole)
Potato = 48mg (1 Med)
Papaya = 33mg (1 Small)
Banana = 32mg (1 Med)
Blackberries = 29mg
Now, I know you might not want to eat an entire cup of say, pumpkin seeds, so I’m also going to include the 1oz calculations for some of the above foods.
Magnesium Rich Foods per 1oz:
Pumpkin Seeds = 150mg
Chia Seeds = 111mg
Almonds = 80mg
Cashews = 72mg
Dark Chocolate = 64mg
Peanuts = 49mg
Flaxseed (1Tbsp) = 40mg
Whether you eat 1 cup, 1oz, somewhere in-between those portions or more, I think you can see by the numbers it’s not hard to get enough magnesium in your diet.
Like this article? Check out the rest of the Nutrient Collage series!
Liking the website? Sign up for my Patreon! You’ll get cool insider benefits (like access to my entire body of short story work, book announcements, etc.) and help an indie blogger keep the lights on. Tiers start at just $1!
Last year, I started taking a dance class. It’s been a lot of fun, but I wasn’t progressing as fast as I thought I should be, so at the beginning of this year – per the instructor’s advice – I started working out twice a week, and began drinking protein shakes/smoothies/whatever you want to call them on the same days.
And, to my surprise, I started seeing results!
Now, I’ll be honest: I’ve never attempted to build muscle seriously before, and due to my allergies, I’ve never tried ‘traditional’ protein powders.
This unfortunately means I can’t give you a comparison between this powder and another – non-vegan or otherwise – all I can give you is my experience with using the product.
Please keep that in mind as you read this review.
I’d also like you to keep in mind who is talking: I work a desk job and found normal working out (weight lifting, treadmills, other generic gym equipment, etc.) to be boring and often, hurt or felt like it wasn’t doing anything (though that’s a completely other post) so I stopped doing it. I still did stretches or some squats a few times a week, but for the most part, there wasn’t much body movement happening.
This also meant I had very little muscle going into the dance class. A running joke in my family was that I had ‘zero’ muscle – which isn’t true because I’d obviously not be able to walk around – but to put things into perspective, I had trouble lifting a regular sack of potatoes. Not carrying, lifting.
Okay, so now that I’ve painted you the accurate before picture of me, let’s get into the good stuff:
The first thing I noticed about this protein powder was it was listed online for $50 (Healthy Planet), and when it showed up, the container was a lot bigger than I thought it’d be.
Protein powder container compared to a Silk Oat tetra pack
The container also boasts all the good things about the powder in an easy-to-read format: 30g of Protein, 5g BCAA (explained as ‘Branched Chain Amino Acids’ in fine print at the bottom of the label), 5g of Glutamic Acid, 1 B/G CFU (Colony Forming Units) and Tart Cherries.
I don’t know exactly why they list Tart Cherries being in the product with all that other stuff, but I assume it’s somehow beneficial. Also on the subject of not knowing what all that means: you don’t have to!
If you turn the container around, it tells you why the things listed on the front are good things and what they do.
The label also says one container is supposed to last for about 19 portions, but my first container lasted for much longer. (I’m actually still using it! Looks like it will be done by Friday, though. Currently at about 37 portions [started January 6th], so by Friday it will have been 39 [April 18th])
I will admit, I don’t use the scoop that came with the powder, I use a Tablespoon, instead. I do this because I’ve been using a Magic Bullet, and the cup size is smaller than the amount of liquid the container tells you to use for 1 powder scoop. So after some quick mathing, I discovered 2 Tbs is the right amount for my cup.
If you’re using a bigger cup, or know what you’re doing, I would assume adjusting the portion to fit your needs would work, as well. Just keep in mind that that will change how long the container lasts.
“Ater,” you may be thinking, “all this is great, but how does it taste?” Good question!
This protein powder has a chalky taste when it’s alone (yes, I taste-tested it by itself for this review, you’re welcome), similar to what So Good Chocolate used to taste like. (I haven’t bought this brand in years, so can’t say if it’s still chalky) It’s more chalk than chocolate, but since you’re not supposed to ingest it that way, I wouldn’t hold that against it.
When it’s blended into a shake/smoothie/whatever though, it either disappears completely, or helps adds to the chocolate-y taste.
My shakes I like to keep simple, so they are just: banana, faux milk (used to be Silk Chocolate Almond but that has gotten harder to find lately, so recently I’ve started using Earth’s Own Oat Chocolate), the protein powder and some peanut butter.
Because I’m using faux chocolate milk, it’s hard to say if the chocolate taste is from the milk alone, or if the protein powder helps. With how strong the scent of chocolate is when you open the container though, I wouldn’t be surprised if it enhances the flavour when blended.
It also blends very easily, but my Magic Bullet is old (was bought around 2014/15) so sometimes the frozen banana makes it hard for the dying motor to get everything completely smooth.
But even when it’s lumpy, the taste is still good!
As for how much it helps with your actual muscle gains, as I said above, I haven’t tried other powders so I can’t compare to those. However, I do think it has helped on my growing muscle journey. I wish I could give you specifics, but I can’t. The only thing I can tell you is it does seem to help my muscles recover faster, and I have noticed a slightly dramatic increase in muscle mass during the three month time. (Though this might also be because I started to work out 3 times a week, as well)
All in all, I would recommend this product for people who want to start working out, switch from their other protein powder or if nothing else, want to make getting enough protein in their diet easier.
I believe this protein powder is doing good, I’m just too much of a newbie to properly explain the science for why.
While most people don’t need to specifically worry about whether or not they’re getting enough Vitamin A, it’s still beneficial to learn what foods have which nutrients. It can also be helpful to see some “staple” foods that seem to have every nutrient in them that you should be eating all the time, and other foods you can use to shake up your diet, while maintaining your health.
Speaking of which, you may know that Vitamin A is important for you to eat, but do you know why? (Other than “people say so”)
Vitamin A is important to eat because it helps maintain:
Vision
Body Growth
Immune Function
Reproductive Health
There’s actually two kinds of Vitamin A: Vitamin A1 (also called retinol) is the kind only found in animal products, whereas Provitamin A is the kind found in plant-based foods.
And while getting enough Vitamin A is important for your overall health (my research found “males” need 900 micrograms, whereas “females” need 700 micrograms), I also came across an article that said getting too much Vitamin A (200,000mcg) could lead to some not-so-fun side effects:
Nausea
Vomiting
Vertigo
Blurry Vision
The article I found this information from was unclear on whether or not they were speaking about the food-sourced Vitamin A or supplements, but I figured it was good information to include, anyway.
Now you know how much you need (and how much to avoid), time to learn the best plant-based sources of Vitamin A:
Starting in the top left-hand corner, moving clockwise:
Sweet Potato, Baked 1,920 mcg
Carrots, Cooked 1,280 mcg
Butternut Squash, Baked 1,140 mcg
Spinach, Cooked 943 mcg
Collard Greens, Cooked 722 mcg
Turnip Greens, Cooked 549 mcg
Swiss Chard, Cooked 536 mcg
Pumpkin Pie (1 “piece”) 488 mcg
Cantaloupe 270 mcg
Red Bell Pepper, Raw (1 Large) 257 mcg
Romaine Lettuce, Raw 205 mcg
Grapefruit (1 full) 178 mcg (89 mcg per half)
Kale, Cooked 172 mcg
Broccoli 120 mcg
Mango 89 mcg
Papaya 78 mcg
Apricot (2 Apricots) 67 mcg
Black Eyed Peas, Boiled 66 mcg
Watermelon 43 mcg
Tomato Juice (3/4C) 42 mcg
Tangerine (1 full) 37 mcg
Like this article? Check out the rest of my Nutrient Collage series here!
Protein powder container compared to a Silk Oat tetra pack
