Dal, whole grains, leafy greens, nuts and seeds all give you magnesium. Start with foods you already buy, such as moong dal, bajra, palak and groundnuts.
What to add to a meal
Have a bowl of dal with your roti. Add palak to dal if you already have it in the fridge. Try bajra roti on a day you would otherwise make wheat roti, or put a small handful of unsalted groundnuts in your snack box. These are different ways to add magnesium across the week.
Compare what you eat
A table might list magnesium for 100 g of dry dal. Your bowl contains cooked dal and water. Use the figure that matches what you weighed. If your table lists dry dal, start with the dry weight used for the whole pot and divide it by the number of bowls it makes.
For example, if 120 g of dry dal makes four equal bowls, each bowl represents about 30 g of dry dal. Look up the matching dal and multiply its magnesium per 100 g by 0.30. If one person takes a bigger helping or the dal settles at the bottom of the pot, the bowls will differ. Stir before serving if you want a closer estimate.
Build a meal around one change you will actually repeat. If bajra flour goes unused in your cupboard, add moong to a familiar khichdi or put palak in the dal you already make. If you want a snack, buy a small packet of unsalted groundnuts before buying a large seed mix.
Next time you shop, pick one pulse, one green and one nut or seed you know you will use. How to read raw and cooked weights · Indian Food Composition Tables · NIH magnesium fact sheet
Three easy places to start
If breakfast is usually upma, keep it and add roasted groundnuts if you like them. At lunch, check what your usual dal and roti already contribute before buying anything new. For a household that cooks dal once for two meals, write the dry amount on a note beside the cooker. You can reuse that estimate each time you make the same batch. A food record is more useful when it reflects a normal week.
High-fibre Indian pantry foods gives you more ways to use these grains, pulses and seeds.