Sao Paulo, Brazil—A new research study conducted in Brazil has linked magnesium intake to diabetes, finding that a magnesium deficiency could lead to the development of diabetes mellitus.

Researchers from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil performed fasting blood sugar tests to determine blood glucose levels in 51 type-2 diabetics who hadn’t eaten in eight hours. They found that those with higher glucose levels also had lower magnesium levels.

Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D., author of The Magnesium Miracle, advises people to make sure that they are consuming enough magnesium. She suggests frequently eating protein, such as wild salmon, as well as including enough whole grains, legumes, and vegetables in the diet. She also recommends that people stay away from aspartame, an artificial sweetener that worsens blood sugar and causes weight gain, nerve damage, eye damage, headaches, and breaks down into formaldehyde. Dean recommends taking a magnesium supplement, as food sources are not enough due to depleted soils and the high amounts of processed, non-nutritional foods that many Americans eat.

These results are published in Clinical Nutrition.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, May 2011 (online 3/21/11)