Mag-on Review: Lots of Cals & Carbs for Fans of Tart Flavors

Marketing claims – all about magnesium

The “Mag” of Mag-on stands for magnesium. Its energy gels provide 50 mg of magnesium per sachet, about 12-15% of the daily recommended intake.

What are the benefits of magnesium?

Before we get to the meat of the review, let’s look at why magnesium is crucial to your overall health and athletic performance. After all, Mag-on’s brand and product strategies revolve entirely around this micro-nutrient.

Magnesium is an essential mineral and also an electrolyte. The human body doesn’t produce it, meaning you can only get it through diet. In case you are curious, there are 16 essential minerals categorized into two groups: major minerals (we need large quantities) and trace minerals (also crucial to our health, but we don’t need nearly as much).

Major minerals: calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and sulfur.
Trace minerals: chromium, copper, fluoride, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc.

Magnesium is responsible for hundreds of bodily functions, including food-to-energy conversion, protein synthesis, DNA and RNA repair, muscle contraction, bone health, cardiovascular functions, and nervous system regulation, to name a few.

It should be easy to get enough magnesium through the foods we eat. The daily recommended intake is 400-420 mg for men and 310-320 mg for women. Leafy greens, fruits, lentils, nuts, and seeds, are all rich in magnesium.

Yet most people are magnesium deficient. The argument is that the average modern diet doesn’t contain an adequate amount of magnesium. And even people with a well-balanced diet that includes the mentioned magnesium-rich foods don’t get enough either.

Why? Magnesium supplement proponents claim that today’s farm soils are far less fertile, affecting the content of magnesium and other minerals in our foods. Additionally, endurance athletes require higher magnesium intake since we sweat out more electrolytes such as magnesium.

What are the ingredients and nutritional facts of Mag-on energy gels?

I tried three flavors – Lemon, Pink Grapefruit, and AO Mikan (tangerine). They have the same nutritional profile, offering 120 calories, 30 g of carbohydrates, 50 mg of magnesium, and 25 g of caffeine per energy gel.

A few notables:

120 calories and 30 g of carbohydrates are on the high end of the energy content spectrum.
A generous dose of magnesium but no sodium and potassium, the two electrolytes more often mentioned in the endurance sports world.
Magnesium oxide is not considered a highly bioavailable form of magnesium.
Mag-on also offers caffeine-free flavors. I just happened to pick three that have caffeine.
AO Mikan offers a few more bells and whistles. It’s fortified with vitamin Bs and C.

Per 41 g pack, it contains: