Is There Enough Choline In Your Diet? Rich Sources & Supplements

A “choline diet” may not be as common as a low carb diet, but thinking about choline in your diet is critical for achieving a state of normal, healthy mental fitness.

Many of us diet for a variety of reasons – to lose weight, to improve sports performance, or to address debilitating conditions like diabetes and arthritis.

But just as surely as eating right can reduce inflammation in the body and promote healthy physical function, making sure you have adequate levels of organic compounds like choline in your system can repair, maintain, and boost neurological functions.

Choline, found in some basic foods, is a critical building block of intelligence and memory. Eating a choline-rich diet can not only help you feel your best physically, it can also help you operate at peak mental performance levels.

Let’s take a look at how it works and how much you need to be consuming every day.

Choline

Cholinergic Supplement

Memory

Brain Health

Cognition

How It Works:

• Supports memory and synaptic plasticity
• Raises acetylcholine levels
• Promotes brain health and focus

Dosage:

Between 250 - 1,000 mg per day

Safety:

Rated Likely Safe

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How The Body Uses Choline

The choline in your diet is quickly put to work for a variety of vital functions. This water soluble compound protects and fortifies cell membranes and encourages improved signaling.

It’s most important role though is facilitating production of Acetylcholine, a crucial neurotransmitter which aids memory, recall of facts, logical and verbal reasoning, mental clarity, and response to stimuli.

Acetylcholine does all of this by enhancing the neuroplasticity of the brain. This means that neurons are more able to form new connections in the form of synapses.

Whenever we turn experiences into memories, or make sense of those experiences as they relate to how we think, feel, and live, it is done via these synaptic connections. So, that initial presence of choline results in a profound impact upon how we process all information.

Health Risks of Choline Deficiencies

The next question is, are you getting enough choline dietary sources to stimulate adequate Acetylcholine? Unfortunately, most people are not. It is estimated that as many as 90 percent of the public are not getting enough choline in their diets to meet daily recommended intake levels.

Over hundreds and even thousands of years, popular tastes and cultural habits change, and diets that once served our bodies the amount of choline they require have gone out of practice.

Without enough choline, the brain becomes less plastic and less able to form new connections. That means decreased memory, reduced mental clarity, and lowered ability to reason logically. A diet that is chronically choline-deficient diet might also result in far worse outcomes, such as neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s Disease.

Though the exact causes of Alzheimer’s are not yet fully understood, the cause of an aging brain’s reduced capacity to form new synaptic connections may be nutrient shortages and hardened tissue. This is why drugs that increase Acetylcholine levels in the brain are often prescribed to individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and other forms of cognitive decline.

This understanding may actually be good news in the long run, because adding choline to the diet could turn out to be a viable therapy for the previously untreatable symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

Choline Diet Sources

The main food sources of a choline-rich diet are simple and can be found in any grocery store.

They include beef liver, common eggs, salmon, cauliflower, navy beans, wheat germ, skim milk, peanut butter, and broccoli. Many of these ingredients find their way onto our dinner tables regularly.

Unfortunately, most people will not consume nearly enough of these foods to meet an adequate daily amount of choline in their diet. Three ounces of beef liver can deliver as much as 350 mg of choline. But with the recommended doses closer to 550 mg per day for men and 450 mg per day for women, one would have to consume 1-2 servings of beef liver every single day to receive enough choline.

It is conceivable that ancient diets may have been able to support this amount, but in modern culinary culture, it’s highly unlikely that most people will want to eat that much liver! And vegetarians face a far tougher road when it comes to a choline diet, as the richest sources of choline in the diet come from animal products like eggs and organ meats.

Types of Choline Supplements

So how can we increase our choline dietary intake, without having to eat 2 pounds of liver per week? The answer is choline supplementation.

By taking a single choline supplement as part of a daily regimen, all of the choline benefits like enhanced memory and better verbal reasoning can be had with no impact upon the waistline or the taste buds.

When looking for choline supplements, it’s important to consider the bioavailability of the form you choose. Not all choline supplements are the same.

Some popular forms, like choline citrate and choline bitartrate, deliver some positive effects, but are hindered by their inability to cross the blood brain barrier. This means they are not able to be used in large quantities in the brain.

A couple of excellent choline supplements have worked around this problem by using Phosphatidylcholine as a “middleman”. The supplements, called Alpha GCP and CDP Choline (Citicoline), function as the end product and pre-cursor to Phosphatidylcholine, a fully bioavailable chemical which delivers choline straight to the neural cells.

By incorporating these supplements into your diet, and perhaps adding in a few servings of the choline-rich foods mentioned above, you can achieve healthy choline and Acetylcholine levels, and all of the amazing cognitive benefits that go along with it.

A high choline diet may not affect your appetite like a low-carb diet will, but it may improve your overall mental health, empowering you to make the best choices for your body and life.

The research on choline dietary supplements is very promising, however more large-scale human trials still need to be done to determine more of the effects supplemental choline may have. At this time, Choline is available as a dietary supplement only, and the FDA has not approved Choline as a drug to prevent or treat any conditions.

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