Magnesium Glycinate vs Magnesium Citrate – Which is Healthier?

Our Verdict

When comparing magnesium glycinate to magnesium citrate, we picked the citrate.

Why?

Both are fine sources of magnesium, a nutrient in which it’s very common to be deficient—a lot of people don’t eat many leafy greens, beans, nuts, and so forth that contain it.

A quick word on a third contender we didn’t include here: magnesium oxide is probably the most widely-sold magnesium supplement because it’s cheapest to make. It also has woeful bioavailability, to the point that there seems to be negligible benefit to taking it. So we don’t recommend that.

Magnesium glycinate and magnesium citrate are both absorbed well, but magnesium citrate is the most well-absorbed form of magnesium supplement.

In terms of the relative merits of the glycine or the citric acid (the “other part” of magnesium glycinate and magnesium citrate, respectively), both are also great nutrients, but the amount delivered with the magnesium is quite small in each case, and so there’s nothing here to swing it one way or the other.

For this reason, we went with the magnesium citrate, as the most readily bioavailable!

Want to try them out?

Here they are on Amazon:

Magnesium glycinate | Magnesium citrate

Enjoy!