Raisins make a good snack and are also used as an ingredient in both savory and sweet recipes. Like any dried fruit, raisins are high in calories, but they are nutritious, containing small amounts of a number of essential vitamins and minerals, including magnesium. However, raisins provide only a small amount of the magnesium you need each day.
Magnesium Importance
Magnesium is an essential mineral. Your body uses it for regulating many vitamin and mineral levels, producing energy and proteins, activating enzymes, and keeping your bones and teeth strong and your organs functioning properly. Your muscles, nerves and immune system also need magnesium, and it helps keep both your blood sugar and blood pressure at healthy levels.
Magnesium in Raisins
A 1/4-cup serving of raisins provides you with only 4 percent of the daily value for magnesium. According to the Food and Drug Administration, any food that contains 5 percent or less of the daily value for a nutrient is low in that nutrient. This means that raisins are not a good source of magnesium, although they can help you meet your recommended magnesium intake along with other dietary sources of magnesium.
Good Sources of Magnesium
Almonds, black walnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, pine nuts, pumpkin and squash seeds, halibut, blackstrap molasses, legumes, soybean flour, tofu, green leafy vegetables, wheat bran and whole grains are good sources of magnesium. Other foods that are relatively high in magnesium include bananas, chocolate, cocoa powder, baked potatoes with skin, peanuts, pistachio nuts, whole wheat flour, oat flour and oatmeal, spinach, beet greens, bran cereals and shredded wheat.
Considerations
Most people do not get as much magnesium as they should from foods, although they often get enough to prevent deficiency symptoms, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Women need at least 310 mg to 320 mg per day, and men need at least 400 mg to 420 mg per day, depending on whether they are under 30 years old or age 31 and older.
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