10 Best Magnesium-Rich Foods for Stress, Sleep, and Mood

Foods that are high in magnesium offer benefits for both your physical and mental health. 

Magnesium is involved in hundreds of chemical reactions throughout your body, including reactions that help you respond to stress, relax your muscles, support healthy sleep, and regulate mood. Unfortunately, many people don't get enough magnesium from their diet.

When I researched magnesium for my book Feed Your Calm: Anti-Anxiety Anti-Stress Diet and Supplement Tips for Stress Resilience, I discovered that simply choosing foods with the highest magnesium content wasn't enough.

I wanted foods that not only contain magnesium but also help your body make the best use of it to support your health goals.

Some foods commonly listed as "high-magnesium foods" didn't make my recommended list because they contain large amounts of caffeine -- which can increase anxiety -- or antinutrients that research shows interfere with magnesium absorption.

Below are the magnesium-rich foods that earned a place on my list.

Why Magnesium is Important

First, why should you care about getting enough magnesium?

Turns out, it's a really important nutrient. Magnesium is required for about 600 biochemical reactions in your body.

This mineral helps support these physical processes that impact mental health:

• nervous system function
• healthy muscle relaxation
• production and use of calming neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and GABA
• restful sleep
• healthy blood sugar regulation
• gut health
• healthy stress hormone function

Stress creates a magnesium double bind. You need magnesium to help your body cope with stress, but stress also burns through magnesium. Keeping your magnesium level up gives your body the nutrients it needs to respond more effectively to life's everyday challenges.

How Much Magnesium Do You Need Each Day?

The US Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for healthy adults is:

• Men ages 19–30: 400 mg per day
• Men ages 31 and older: 420 mg per day
• Women ages 19–30: 310 mg per day
• Women ages 31 and older: 320 mg per day

10 Best Magnesium-Rich Foods for Mental Health and Better Sleep

Magnesium is found in many foods, but these are my top picks for supporting a calm mind, stress resilience, better sleep, and mood. 

It includes protein foods, vegetables, starches, a dairy product, and a fruit: 

1. Salmon, herring, and sardines
2. Oysters and sea scallops
3. Seaweed
4. Kale, collards, and arugula
5. Sprouted rice and quinoa
6. Sprouted beans and lentils
7. Yogurt
8. Potatoes
9. Summer squash (such as zucchini)
10. Bananas
    

Why Aren't Spinach, Almonds, and Chocolate on My List?

You may have noticed that some foods commonly listed as high magnesium foods elsewhere aren't included on my best-of list.

While researching anti-anxiety foods for my book Feed Your Calm, I was surprised to find biological downsides to some foods rich in magnesium content. It took me several years to write the book because I often encountered issues like that and felt the need to investigate and assess the validity of perspectives before making recommendations. 

3 things knocked foods off my list:

• Caffeine may interfere with sleep or increase anxiety — so unfortunately, chocolate had to get cut.
• High phytate content in unsprouted whole grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes has been shown to interfere with the absorption of their magnesium — so the high magnesium content in these foods doesn't translate directly into the amount available to your body. Since sprouting reduces the phytate, sprouted versions of some of these foods made the list. 
• High oxalate content in some greens, such as spinach and Swiss chard, can interfere with magnesium absorption in a similar way to phytates — so I chose other greens, such as kale and arugula, that have high magnesium and low oxalate.

I'm not saying that you should avoid unsprouted grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes, or high-oxalate greens. That would be an individual choice. I just don't want them on my recommended list if their available magnesium is scientifically questionable.

See the Reference section at the end of this post for related phytate and oxylate research.

1. Salmon, Sardines, and Herring

40–100 mg in 4 oz 

These fish provide magnesium, along with other nutrients helpful for mental health: EPA and DHA omega-3 fats, complete protein, and B vitamins.

They are also relatively low in mercury compared with many larger fish. That is an important consideration since mercury is a neurotoxin that can cross the blood-brain barrier and have a negative impact on emotional wellbeing. 

When wild-caught, these fish also offer vitamin D. Sardines and herring are not farmed, but salmon often is. Farmed salmon has lots of downsides, including reduced vitamin D content. 

🟢➜ For more about choosing fish and why I recommend wild-caught: Best Protein Foods for Anxiety: Meat, Fish, and Plant Sources

2. Oysters and Scallops

50 mg in 6 of either

Oysters and sea scallops are both good sources of magnesium. 

Oysters are especially noteworthy because they're among the richest dietary sources of zinc, another mineral important for stress resilience. That's why oysters also appear on my top 12 best foods for anxiety list.

3. Seaweed

40–100 mg in 1/2 cup dried

You may have noticed there's a theme to the first three high-magnesium foods: they are all from the sea. 

Seaweed, also called sea vegetables, provides magnesium along with iodine, zinc, and B vitamins.

Nori, arame, kombu, wakame, dulse, and kelp are all nutritious choices. It can be eaten as a salad, in cooked dishes, as a component of sushi, or as a toasted snack. 

🟢➜ Learn more about seaweed and my favorite ways to eat it: Seaweed for Anxiety: Iodine, Minerals, and Stress Resilience

4. Kale, Collards, and Arugula

25–40 mg in 1 cup

Kale, collards, and arugula are all leafy greens belonging to the cruciferous family of vegetables (also known as brassica and the cabbage family). 

They provide magnesium together with vitamin C, B vitamins, and sulfur — which is believed to be anti-inflammatory.  (Research has demonstrated an association between inflammation and both anxiety and depression.)

Unlike spinach, Swiss chard, and beet greens, which are also high-magnesium greens, kale, collards, and arugula have much lower levels of oxalate, an antinutrient that can bind magnesium and reduce its availability for absorption.

5. Sprouted Rice and Quinoa

70–100 mg in 1 cup

You might not be as familiar with quinoa as you are with rice. Quinoa is a pseudo-grain. It's actually a seed but is used like a grain in meal planning and composition. It provides all nine essential amino acids, making it an excellent plant-based protein source. And it is an excellent source of the flavonoid quercetin. 

While quinoa and brown rice have high magnesium content, they also contain phytates that may interfere with mineral absorption. (White rice has the phytate removed in the milling process, but also loses the bulk of the magnesium. White rice has only about 10-24 mg of magnesium per cup.)

Sprouting activates the enzyme phytase, which breaks down phytate, thereby improving mineral bioaccessibility. 

"Sprouting of brown rice over a period of 12–72 hours led to a reduction of 60% in phytate content." Sprouted Grains: A Comprehensive Review

Sprouting also increases vitamin, antioxidant, and flavonoid levels, which can support both physical and mental health.

6. Sprouted Beans and Lentils

75–120 mg in 1 cup

Beans and lentils are in the legume family of foods. They naturally contain magnesium, zinc, B vitamins, and protein.

As I mentioned earlier, sprouting reduces phytates. It also improves digestibility and increases useful nutrients.

Another way to reduce phytates in legumes is to soak them overnight (12 to 24 hours) and discard the soaking water before cooking. 

7. Yogurt

50 mg in 1 cup

Yogurt supplies magnesium together with probiotics that support the gut-brain axis.

A healthy gut microbiome plays an important role in emotional wellbeing and stress resilience.

8. Potatoes

50 mg in 1 medium

Potatoes are one of the most affordable and accessible magnesium-rich foods on my list. Most people already enjoy them, making potatoes an easy way to boost magnesium intake without making major changes to your diet.

9. Summer Squash

45 mg in 1 cup

Summer squash is a family of vegetables that are very versatile to cook with. To me, their lack of strong flavor makes them easy to work into many different recipes, like quick stir-fries with other veggies and a protein. I also like that they can serve as a low-calorie replacement for pasta or rice as the bulk of the dish. 

10. Bananas

30 mg in 1 medium

While bananas are known for their potassium content, they are also good sources of magnesium. 

They're an easy addition to breakfasts, snacks, or smoothies.

Words of Encouragement

You don't need to eat all ten foods. Even adding one or two magnesium-rich foods to your weekly routine can make a meaningful difference over time. Small dietary changes are often easier to stick with than complete overhauls.

How to Supplement Magnesium

If you're interested in magnesium supplements, I've written additional articles covering:

🟢➜  How to Choose the Best Magnesium Supplement for You: Quick Overview

🟢➜ Best and Worst Oral Magnesium Supplements: What You Need to Know

🟢➜ Magnesium Oil & Flakes: How to Use Transdermal Mg

More Ways to Feed Your Calm

Nutrition plays an important role in how your body responds to stress.

I explore this topic in much greater depth in my book Feed Your Calm: Anti-Anxiety Anti-Stress Diet and Supplement Tips for Stress Resilience. It took four years to research and write, combining my background as a medical lab technologist (my first career) and two decades as a therapist to evaluate the research behind foods, supplements, and lifestyle strategies that may help support stress resilience.

Whether you're looking to improve your mood, sleep better, or simply help your body deal with stress more effectively, Feed Your Calm 

References

Why Not Phytates and Oxalates?

Torsten Bohn et al., “Phytic Acid Added to White-Wheat Bread Inhibits Fractional Apparent Magnesium Absorption in Humans,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 79, no. 3 (2004): 418–423, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/79.3.418;

Torsten Bohn, “Dietary Factors Influencing Magnesium Absorption in Humans,” Current Nutrition & Food Science 4, no. 1 (2008): 53–72, https://doi.org/10.2174/157340108783497427;

Ulrich Schlemmer et al., “Phytate in Foods and Significance for Humans: Food Sources, Intake, Processing, Bioavailability, Protective Role and Analysis,” Molecular Nutrition & Food Research 53, no. S2 (2009): S330–S375, https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.200900099;

Torsten Bohn et al., “Fractional Magnesium Absorption Is Significantly Lower in Human Subjects from a Meal Served with an Oxalate-Rich Vegetable, Spinach, As Compared with a Meal Served with Kale, a Vegetable with a Low Oxalate Content,” British Journal of Nutrition 91, no. 04 (2004): 601, https://doi.org/10.1079/bjn20031081;

S. N. Bsc, “Oxalate Content of Foods and Its Effect on Humans,” Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 8, no. 1 (1999): 64–74, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1440-6047.1999.00038.x.

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