Magnesium is the newest must have nutrient, before that it was Vitamin D, before that it was Vitamin C and before that it was Zinc.
Is Magnesium then so important? No more so than vitamin D and no less than calcium which seems to be forgotten these days and worse, sometimes treated by the medical profession as the enemy; iron is ignored, which is strange as both calcium and iron are essential for life. Calcium and iron can deplete each other, and for their absorption and use in the body they need the support of minerals which needs the support of amino acids and enzymes which then needs the action of the messengers in the body - the hormones.
The point is we need all minerals and all vitamins and of-course proteins and fats, not to forget mineral rich water, all the time, none can be highlighted as being more important than the other.
Cattle and sheep as you know eat grass, however the female of the species has to have magnesium supplemented after they give birth or they wouldn't be able to stand up. Magnesium should be found naturally and abundantly in the green grass they eat.
The same applies to us, we are not getting the nutrients we need (even if we do make good quality healthy food choices) because the nutrients have been robbed from the soil by pesticides, herbicides, and over farming, therefore are available for the animals in the grass they eat, or the vegetables that are grown in the soil.
Iron, Folate (B9) and Vitamin B12 will possibly be the next must-have nutrients flagged up to all and sundry because most people are lacking in them either because it is not in the foods they choose to eat or their bodies have become diseased, which alters the function of the release of iron from the iron storage protein.
The must have nutrients need to be supplied by a diet that is a back to basics style, the type of diet our ancestors would have eaten. Kindly cared for and 'humanely' killed animals. The bones roasted and stewed in a stock pot adding the resulting liquid to soups, stews, sauces and gravies. Consumption of Raw Milk and its products and eggs. Fats and oils from animals, fruits, nuts and seeds. Fruit and vegetables grown without pesticides and stored without preservatives. Water that has travelled over granite rocks to the soil to replenish it.
That is it. That is what our food should be. Little or no grains, nuts, or pulses. Why? Because these when digested turn to sugar (as well as some protein and minerals and vitamins but the amounts of those nutrients depends on how they are grown and processed) and too much sugar causes mayhem in the body. Also grains, nuts, seeds and pulses should have the fibre removed, be roasted or finely crushed, then the finely ground grain possibly fermented and cooked to break down this harsh outer layer that protects the grain, nut, seed and pulse, that some digestive systems cannot break down easily. It is thought that this fibre can cause inflammatory diseases of the gut - diverticulitis, crohns, and cancer. Often these food groups are not fermented or cooked adding to the hazard of carbohydrate consumption.
Someone said to me 'but despite the way we eat now compared to how we used to live, the human race's average life expectancy has risen from forty-five years (1907) to 75 years of age (2007). How would you explain this?'
'Preservatives' I joked.
But aside from joking - while we appear to be living longer, are we living healthier? And the answer to that is No. We have more and more Nursing Homes for those elderly people who are alive due to medication and hygiene practices but who are too diseased to care for themselves. It is tragic.
As mentioned in historical documents as well as Hebrew documents and the books of the Bible, in the very early days of life we would appear to have lived for hundreds of years, so perhaps we are not living as long as we are designed to live. Noah was 600 years old when the flood came.
Therefore what appears to be happening because of the processes of growing, storing and manufacturing foods and the chemical usage in these procedures is that on average our useful lifespan is 60+ years and our slowly declining, degenerated, dependant lifespan, ending in Nursing Homes is 25 - 30 years.
No thank you. I am looking after myself in the healthiest way possible. My book: A Healthier Happier Lifestyle concerns what I did to maintain health after a diagnosis of CFS/ME. I discovered what good food meant, what good movement meant and what good thinking meant and all three helped me to wellness.
When I lived in Spain someone sent my relative some Runner Bean seeds. She planted them in some soil that had not been used for growing anything for decades. It was a grassy verge by the side of a muddy lane that ran beside an ancient barn up in the mountains of Andalucia, fertilised by passing goat herds. These beans seem to behave like Jack's in Jack and the Giant Beanstalk tale. So different did they look with great big furry leaves that the Guadia de Civil, complete with arms, came in their twos to examine them concerned they were something else. We put it down to the nutrients in the soil being denser and more abundant.
References to this article can be found in my book: A healthier, happier lifestyle: http://www.mariannegutierrez.com/a-happier-healthier-lifestyle/ .
References to the life expectancy of man
https://www.livescience.com/10569-human-lifespans-constant-2-000-years.html
http://www.equip.org/article/biblical-archaeology-factual-evidence-to-support-the-historicity-of-the-bible/
http://www.equip.org/bible_answers/noah-take-seven-pairs-just-two-pairs-animals-ark/
References to magnesium
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3575926/ demonstrates why we need nutrient dense good quality foods