What your magnesium supplement doesn't want you to know...

I want to tell you about what shocked me about magnesium supplements - maybe even made me a bit upset: The word “pure” on the front of the bottle doesn’t actually mean “pure”.

When we started with the idea for a better magnesium, our first idea was to copy the formulations of other the top brands - and JUST make a cooler brand and better looking bottle. Then we realized we couldn’t do that…

Because when we received the formula for the “Pure” bisglycinate that we were going to copy…it wasn’t actually pure. It was actually 60% magnesium oxide!

We scratched our heads a bit. Then we asked our suppliers why there was magnesium oxide in their “pure” magnesium bisglycinate formulation. They explained that magnesium bisglycinate was expensive - so to achieve 200mg of elemental magnesium per capsule, you need to add in magnesium oxide to economically get to 200mg of elemental magnesium.

This was the most honest answer that we were about to hear in the industry. You’ll be shocked by what you hear next.

We realized that we couldn’t just do what the others did. It wasn’t right. We couldn’t talk about delivering value and only giving customers what they are paying for, and nothing else…then add in magnesium oxide. Unless we were missing something…

We know that magnesium oxide is an inferior version of magnesium. It is typically used as a laxative BECAUSE it isn’t well absorbed by the body. So unless you want digestive “relief” and a 4% absorption rate of your magnesium (vs bisglycinate’s demonstrated 24% absorption rate…a 600% improvement in absorption).

Renowned wellness influencers (like Dr. Rhonda Patrick) and naturopaths (like Dr. Robin Lewis) agree that magnesium bisglycinate is the most well-researched and best-absorbed form of supplemental magnesium.

So then why do I hear the following egregious statement in the industry???

“We add magnesium oxide as a buffer.”

Why is this an egregious statement?

Well, we already know that magnesium oxide is more economical, and it is less effective. We also know that the major brands are using oxide in their '“pure” bisglycinate formulations. So is this a statement that gives more value to customers? Or is this a way to justify an economic decision?

So let’s see if the “buffer” statement is true…

(If it were true, we’d change our formulation to include oxide because we’d save on costs and make more money.)

To start, why would something need to be buffered? If we interpret the word “buffer” from a biochemical point of view, we’d take this to mean that we want to maintain a stable pH as the supplement is ingested. And why would we want to do that? Perhaps to increase the absorption rate.

But if we already know that magnesium bisglycinate has a higher absorption than magnesium oxide, why would it need to be “buffered” to increase absorption? And if this was true, then we’d want research to support this claim…of which there is none. Let’s ask Google’s AI to see if we can find anything…

The other potential interpretation of the word “buffer” is to increase the pH (alkalinity) of the substance to help it get a higher absorption in the body. This was a popular idea when creatine monohydrate (not buffered) competed against a proprietary formula called Kre-Alkalyn (buffered). At the time, retailers all talked about the benefits of buffered creatine - but over time, the research has not supported any of the claims that buffered creatine was better than the non-proprietary creatine monohydrate.

So we believe that the most honest take on including magnesium oxide is the one that came from our supplier: that including magnesium oxide economically allows you to get more elemental magnesium in a capsule. Not that there is any reason to do it from an absorption standpoint due to “buffering”.

When we looked at other brands, we were surprised to see that the front of their bottles also said “Pure”…but they also had magnesium oxide included in their blend. So watch out for “Pure” Magnesium Bisglycinate - make sure to read the back label too!

So as newcomers to the industry, it was confusing what “Pure” actually meant. And we still haven’t figured it out. So we didn’t even include it on our label. (What would we say? “Pure pure Magnesium bisglycinate”? or “No really, ours is actually truly pure!”)

Instead, we decided to make it straightforward. We’re targeting maximum value so that what you pay for is being used by your body - and there is ample research to back it up.

Our magnesium bisglycinate actually, truly, positively is pure magnesium bisglycinate.

We pushed our supplier to add in more magnesium bisglycinate than anyone in the industry. So each of our capsules truly has 200mg of magnesium bisglycinate and NO OXIDE!

Our only non-medicinal ingredient is microcrystalline cellulose and the vegetable capsule - and NOTHING else.

There is no other magnesium on the market with this much PURE magnesium in a capsule. And even though we provide more than double the absorbable magnesium per capsule, we are NOT double the price.

Yes, it makes our road harder because we are going against the grain, we’ve chosen a more expensive formulation, and now need to unsell retailers and healthcare practitioners on the value of “buffered” magnesium bisglycinate.

But we believe that by making the supplement we want to take and that we feel good recommending to our friends and families, the challenge of the harder road will be more rewarding.

We’re anticipating a late July or early August launch date. Hit reply and tell us if you want to hear from us when we launch!