Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential health benefits of magnesium supplements.

The Government’s nutrition advice is based on recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and its predecessor, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutritional Policy (COMA).

The COMA set dietary reference values for magnesium for men and women aged 19 to 64 years old at 300 milligrams and 270 milligrams a day, respectively. Current Government advice is that individuals should be able to get all the magnesium they need by eating a varied and balanced diet.

The SACN discussed the topic of magnesium as part of its horizon scanning in 2020, 2022, and 2024. Meeting papers are available on the SACN webpage. The committee has noted that while ‘significant proportions of the population had [low intakes], there was limited evidence that this was of public health concern’. There is no agreed biomarker for measuring magnesium status.

Magnesium is therefore on the SACN’s watching brief as a low priority, and the SACN may consider it again in future, if there are any developments regarding biomarkers for magnesium status, to warrant a review of recommendations.