How Much Choline is in Eggs Yolks? Health Benefits for Memory + More

There’s no disputing what the most popular breakfast food is, but is there enough choline in eggs to make them a viable source of this crucial cognitive enhancer?

Choline is a natural and essential part of every person’s mental physiology.

Long derived from food sources like eggs and liver, the human brain requires choline for cell membrane stability and the production of Acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter linked to memory, mental clarity, and logical reasoning.

However, as modern diets have evolved over thousands of years, the consumption of staple foods containing choline has dropped, leading to widespread deficiencies in the population. Is the choline in an egg breakfast supplying you with adequate levels of this vital mental nutrient?

Read on to find out if choline in eggs will be enough for keeping your memory sharp or supplementing a nootropic stack.

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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Why Is Choline Important For Good Mental Health?

While some people may know that there are many important nutrients including choline in eggs, they may not know all of the many functions this essential nutrient plays in the body.

Choline has several physical functions in the body, like regulating blood homocysteine, reducing inflammation, and promoting overall cell health.

However its neurological benefits are most critical to our ability to think, reason, remember, and manage the other systems of our bodies.

Choline facilitates the production of Acetylcholine, which promotes a state of plasticity in the brain. This means that neurons are supple, flexible, and able to grow new connections to one another in the form of synapses.

Synaptic growth is how new memories and associations are formed. It is also the basis of how we draw logical connections between experiences and facts.

In this way, neuroplasticity is the key function of intelligence. Choline is how the whole process begins, so it is of paramount importance that we consume enough of the compound every single day.

Food Sources of Choline

Historically, all choline consumption has come from the food we eat. The greatest source of natural choline can be found in beef liver.

One serving of beef liver, approximately 3 ounces, can contain as much as 350 mg of choline. Unfortunately, beef liver has gone out of vogue as a staple food in much of the world.

With the renewed interest in vegetarianism and healthy eating practices, some heavy meats like liver have become increasingly scarce on dinner tables.

Some vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts, do contain small amounts of choline. Even peanut butter contains some choline – about 20 mg per 2 tablespoons.

At this time, most people consume choline in eggs. Eggs are used in a broad variety of dishes across most cultures in the world and many people eat eggs daily. But does the choline in eggs deliver enough of this essential nutrient for the typical person’s healthy mental function?

The amount of choline in eggs is a little over 100 mg per regular egg. The recommended daily dosage of choline for adults is 425 mg for women and 550 mg for men. That would mean each person would have to eat between 4-5 eggs per day.

This is not totally implausible, but it is unlikely. Eating that many eggs also carries affiliated risks, such as high cholesterol. Getting all of one’s recommended daily mg of choline in eggs is simply not practical.

How to Supplement the Choline in Eggs

The easy answer to achieving adequate choline levels in the diet without eggs is to add a simple supplement to one’s daily regimen.

Choline pills are an easy, natural way to reach target amounts in the body. However, not all choline supplements are the same.

Two popular choline pills, Choline Bitartrate and Choline Citrate, provide some light mental benefits, but are inhibited by their lack of bioavailability.

This means they are not able to cross the blood brain barrier in high enough concentrations, limiting their potential to create positive effects.

A more viable method of choline supplementation comes in the form of CDP Choline. This form of Choline is a pre-cursor to Phosphatidylcholine in the brain. Phosphatidylcholine is a fully bioavailable neurochemical which crosses the blood brain barrier and produces Acetylcholine directly.

Alpha GPC is another excellent supplement that creates Acetylcholine by simulating the after-effects of Phosphatidylcholine.

Another popular method of enhancing Choline activity is via stacking Choline supplements with other nootropics. One well-known stack combines Choline supplements like CDP Choline with racetams such as Piracetam.

In fact, a common reason for wanting to increase your Choline intake whether by supplements or by eating eggs is because you are already using a Racetam compound like Piracetam or Aniracetam. When taken together, users report a harmonic effect with more dramatic cognitive enhancement, greater mental clarity, and dramatically faster reaction times to stimuli.

While the research on using supplemental choline is promising, more research still needs to be done to understand its full effects. At this time, Choline is available as a health supplement only, and the FDA has not approved Choline as a drug to prevent or treat any conditions.

How Much Choline Do Adults and Children Need Daily?

Every person needs choline in their diet, including children. The National Academy of Sciences has created recommended doses of adequate intake of choline for various age groups.

Infants age 0-6 months should consume 125 mg, with 150 mg for age 7-12 months.

Children aged 1-8 should consume between 200-250 mg, while 9-18 need 375-550 mg.

Adults need about 450-500 mg. In general, men require slightly more choline, about 20 percent more than women’s doses.

While some childrens’ doses could be satisfied by the choline in eggs, it is overall not practical to rely on this food for total choline intake for everyone.

With simple supplementation, we can add to the choline in eggs and other food sources, and receive the full benefits that this compound has for thriving mental health.

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