Magnesium 101

[Lozen]

My personal experience has been that I have much more physical stamina when I cook my food thoroughly. This isn't about a religion out of Chinese medicine, it's about my physical symptoms of bad circulation. I really do have incredibly bad circulation, which used to be a lot worse. I have low blood pressure, used to have varicosity in my arms, and I'm always cold. Since I live in the desert, this pretty weird. I really need to warm up my food as much as possible and constantly eat warming foods and herbs to increase circulation (ginger, cayenne, prickly ash, etc.) Thanks for the suggestions, just can't follow them though. I really like it when I can feel my fingers and toes.

Edited March 3, 2006 by Lozen

[agharta]

Do you want good circulation, or do you want to win the argument? Sungazing will warm you up pretty fast, in my experience, although it doesn't always provide consistent results. Yoga will too, especially inverted postures.

 

I don't really know what would fix your circulation problems from a dietary point of view. Compared to the mineral availability concept, though, Chinese medicine is 85% bullshit. Everything Chinese has a high crap quotient. The truth can be hidden from Chinese folks pretty easily, but I'm a little too white and a little too angry to spend more time fiddling with a half-broken system.

[Lozen]

It's just that my hackles go up when people give me advice that I know would cause harm from my own past experiences. Which means you're probably giving other people advice that would cause harm, and they may be following it. I strongly disagree that TCM is a "half broken system." One thing that TCM, and Ayurveda, and Hispanic herbalism, and constitution-based Western herbalism, and even good Western docs do, that you might benefit from, is look at individual situations and tailor recommendations based on it.

 

In any case, this has nothing to do with magnesium, which is what this thread is supposed to be about.

Edited March 4, 2006 by Lozen

[agharta]

Here's a poem by a female Taoist Immortal. It's about an all-raw diet.

 

ABSTENTION FROM GRAIN

By Sun Bu-er

Once you can feed on the living energy,

Your lungs will be in an extroardinary state of clear coolness.

Forget the spirit, and there are no appearances to cling to;

Merge with the ultimate, and the existent emptiness is gone.

For breakfast look for wild taro roots;

When hungry at night, pick wetland mushrooms.

If you mix in smoke and fire,

Your body will not walk on the jewel pond.

 

 

Here's the link.

 

 

www.healingtaousa.com/bigu.html

 

I am not advising you. I'm arguing a point of fact. You can do what you want to do with your food. You're not going to be able to convince me that cooking food will give you more aerobic stamina, though. Sun Bu-er mentions specifically that the lungs benefit from eating raw, and I have personally experienced and heard from others the benefit to aerobic stamina from eating raw, or very lightly cooked. Not only from raw fooders, but others as well. Any board that is this directly connected to the Healing Tao isn't the best place to knock a raw food diet. Plato, Max, I, and others have been doing the raw thing on and off for years, at least since 2000. Again, not telling you what to do. I'm merely sharing my experience, if you are curious.

[Lozen]

Any board that is this directly connected to the Healing Tao isn't the best place to knock a raw food diet.

 

You'd think that analyzing a diet based on the effects one has seen would be fair game on any board.

 

I went to an all-raw community a couple years ago for Thanksgiving. I looked around at the people who lived there and it seemed that with only one exception, the women were really spacey head in the clouds and looked sick and weakly, not healthy or grounded at all. The men looked a bit better, maybe because some of them were obviously liver excess and could stand to lose some weight. It was mostly the thin people who looked anorexic. When I meet raw fooders who look vibrant and healthy, and who seem emotionally stable, perhaps I will change my mind on the effects of the diet.

 

In addition, Traditional Chinese Medicine specifies that dampness, which is a Spleen imbalance, can arise from diets that contain too much cold raw food, dairy, and alcohol. Rye, scallions and turnips dry dampness, as well as limiting raw foods.

 

And also for cold conditions, one needs to limit cooling foods, especially raw foods and fruit juices, and increase ginger, onion, cayenne, cinnamon, etc.

 

The body is dynamic and constantly changing, I think it's important to make changes with it.

 

Sings of excess heat can be treated with raw foods, and I definitely eat more raw foods in the summer.

 

An interesting article on eating with the elements: http://www.acupuncture.com/nutrition/5elemdiet.htm

 

Oh, and here's something I really enjoy raw... cacao beans: http://naked-chocolate.com/ is a great book written by raw foodists. I tried raw cacao nibs mixed with almond milk and a bit of agave nectar, and it was heavenly. Just as good as "real" chocolate and without the nasty aftertaste/sick feeling I'd get after a shake.

 

Also, raw chocolate is very high in magnesium, to do a full circle back to the original topic of this thread.

[agharta]

Try eating raw shellfish. Raw oysters might be a little dangerous, although I indulge in them whenever I like. I like a lot of raw shrimp, wild-caught, not farm-raised. I also really enjoy raw goat and cow dairy. I promise you, a raw diet that includes a lot of raw animal fat will not leave you emaciated unless you choose to undereat. I was a raw vegan/vegetarian for a while, and have known plenty of people who have done that diet. It only works if the food you eat is of absolutely superior quality, better than anything in the grocery stores these day, or at the farmer's markets.

 

I don't necessarily eat 100% raw, but I am pretty close, most of the time. Social reasons are most of the reason I eat cooked. Again, I don't think cooking is awful, in and of itself, but overcooking is just as bad as slowly starving yourself to death.

 

The quality of the food you eat is at least 99% of the issue, anyway.

 

And if you'll take the opinion of a bunch of Chinese doctors over a Chinese Immortal, then I have a bridge to sell you. Also, some oceanfront property in Arizona.

[Lozen]

Where am I supposed to get raw shellfish?

 

I have had raw milk before but don't have access to raw cow milk right now. I can get raw goat milk but I can't get myself to drink it, so...

 

And yeah, I would rather listen to Chinese docs than immortals. I'm just trying to live and eat in balance, not to become a breatharian, so it makes more sense to me.

[agharta]

again, I'm talking about facts. I never told you what to eat.

 

Dr. Price also found that fish eggs were one of the best foods available, according to every group he studied. You can get dried fish eggs for about $28 a pound. A little goes a long way. You can also mail-order raw cow-s cream, milk, sour cream, etc. pretty easily. Go to www.westonprice.org and order their 2006 food guide for $1. You can find dozens of places to buy raw foods of all kinds, including dried fish eggs, raw butter oil, raw dairy, etc.

 

Most Chinese TCM doctors couldn't give less of a shizzle about your health. They are no help. These are the same people who will tell you that white rice is associated with wealth, and brown rice with poverty. That's REALLL good health advice. Not.

[Lozen]

Thanks for the info.

 

I've had very very good experience with TCM doc, none of which have told me to eat white rice. Only grain they ever recommended was millet. They usually tell me to drink warming teas and eat warming foods, less fruit, chocolate only on a full stomach, eat organic, but never white rice. Lots of good recipes and five element charts on my fridge.

 

Someone just recommended I read The Book of Jook: Chinese Medicinal Porridges--A Healthy Alternative

to the Typical Western Breakfast, by Bob Flaws. Anybody read it?

 

The recipe I posted earlier, I've been told, is a qi tonic and digestive aid. Chicken warms digestion, astragulas strengthens wei chi and invigorates chi, codonopsis invigorates qi and nourishes spleen, rhemannia nourishes blood and yin, and goji berries nourish liver and kidney and qi

 

I want to try chicken with jujube and maybe ginseng for circulation.

[Yoda]

So I figured that if Mrs. Yoda has a magnesium deficiency and I eat the same sort of thing, then I must have one too.

 

Maybe not, though. I've been taking magnesium for a few weeks and just recently taking magnesium gave me quite a case of hiccups which I had to take cough syrup for about a day until they passed.

 

Also, I thought that the first symptom of getting too much magnesium is runny poo-s, but my experience seems to indicate differently.

 

"The Magnesium Factor" says that genetics has a lot to do with it, too.

 

I love the relaxation of taking Natural Calm, so I'll take a week off and hopefully will be able to pick it up again in reduced amounts or I'll try one of their mg/calcium blends to keep things more balanced.