Choline: Food Sources & Daily Intake

Choline is an essential nutrient that most people have never heard of. It is usually grouped with the B vitamins, and the body uses it to build cell membranes, to make the memory-and-muscle signal acetylcholine, and to move fats out of the liver. The body makes a little on its own, but not enough — so it has to come from food. The richest everyday sources are egg yolks and beef liver, followed by meat, fish, beans, whole grains and cruciferous vegetables.

Table of Contents

1. How to Read These Tables
2. Recommended Intakes & Upper Limits
3. Bioavailability & Absorption
4. Cooking & Storage
5. Vegetarian & Vegan Sources
6. Who Needs to Pay Attention
7. Data Sources & References
8. Connections
9. Featured Videos

How to Read These Tables

• It’s an AI, not an RDA. Choline has an Adequate Intake (AI) rather than a Recommended Dietary Allowance, because researchers decided the data were too limited to set a firm allowance. Treat the AI as a sensible daily target: 550 mg for adult men, 425 mg for women, 450 mg in pregnancy and 550 mg while breastfeeding.
• %DV vs your target. The %DV column compares a serving against the FDA Daily Value of 550 mg, the same figure used on nutrition labels. It happens to match the men’s AI, so women and most children will reach their personal target at a lower %DV.
• Per 100 g vs per serving. Per-100 g lets you compare foods fairly; the serving size shown beside each food is what you actually eat. One egg or a 3-ounce piece of liver does far more for your daily total than the percentages alone suggest.

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Recommended Intakes & Upper Limits

Your personal target depends on age, sex and pregnancy. The Daily Value used for the %DV column above is a single label figure; the table below is the age-specific guidance.

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Bioavailability & Absorption

Choline from food is absorbed well throughout the small intestine. It travels in two main forms: as free choline and as phosphatidylcholine (the form in egg yolk), and the body handles both. Genetics matter more here than for most nutrients — common variations in the genes that let the body make its own choline mean some people, and especially some pregnant women, run short on a diet that would be fine for everyone else. There is no need to chase exotic supplements: ordinary foods cover it well if you eat them.

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Cooking & Storage

Choline is reasonably stable — far sturdier than fragile vitamin C. Normal cooking does not destroy much of it, so the numbers in the table already reflect cooked foods. The bigger swing comes from which part of a food you eat: almost all of an egg’s choline is in the yolk, so egg-white-only dishes give up most of the benefit. Boiling vegetables in lots of water can leach a little into the cooking liquid; steaming or roasting keeps slightly more.

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Vegetarian & Vegan Sources

Choline is harder on a plant-based diet than most nutrients, because the two champion sources — eggs and liver — are off the table and the animal foods just below them (meat, fish, dairy) supply a lot of the average person’s intake. It is doable, but it takes intention. The strongest plant sources are wheat germ, kidney and other beans, peanuts and seeds, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Plant eaters should build several of these into the day on purpose rather than assume the total takes care of itself, and pregnant or breastfeeding vegans in particular should look closely at whether they are meeting the AI.

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Who Needs to Pay Attention

Choline is especially important in pregnancy: it is used to build the baby’s brain and supports lifelong memory, and the demand is high enough that many expectant mothers fall short — standard prenatal vitamins often contain little or no choline, so it is worth checking the label and the diet. More broadly, national surveys show most people of all ages get less than the AI, simply because they do not eat many eggs, liver or beans. Frank deficiency is uncommon but can cause liver and muscle damage. Toxicity from food essentially does not happen; the only people who hit the upper limit are those taking very large supplements, which can cause a fishy body odor, sweating, and low blood pressure. The adult UL is 3,500 mg/day — food never comes close.

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Data Sources & References

• NIH Office of Dietary Supplements — Choline Fact Sheet for Health Professionals (AI, DV, UL)
• Linus Pauling Institute — Choline Micronutrient Information Center
• PubMed — choline requirement, pregnancy, and brain development

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Connections

• Choline (Main Page)
• Choline Benefits
• Choline History
• All Vitamins
• Eggs
• Folate (Vitamin B9)
• Vitamin B12
• Salmon

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