Choline
Choline is essential for brain, membrane, and muscle function. Supplemental benefits for cognition and performance remain limited or unclear.
Overview
What is choline?
Choline is an essential nutrient required for many bodily functions including brain health, memory, cell membrane health and muscle control.
The body can make some choline in the liver, but most people still need dietary choline from foods such as eggs, meat, fish, beans, and vegetables.
Oral choline supplements have not shown clear benefits for athletic performance. Evidence for age-related cognitive decline and prenatal choline for infant development is mixed or insufficient.
Dosage
The adequate intake of choline is 550 mg per day for men and 425 mg per day for women.
The tolerable upper intake level for choline is 3,500 mg per day for adults, 1,000 mg per day for children aged 1–8 years, 2,000 mg per day for children aged 9–13, and 3,000 mg per day for children aged 14–18.
Effect graph
Effect heatmap
SupplementDEX Database
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Database Snapshot
Most choline research is concentrated in a handful of conditions.
- Infant development accounts for 7 of 14 studies (50%).
- Age-related cognitive decline accounts for 4 of 14 studies (29%).
- Athletic performance accounts for 3 of 14 studies (21%).
Dietary Sources
Top dietary sources
Ranked by amount per 100 g
High amounts of choline are found in common foods.
- 293 mg100 g
- 135 mg100 g
- 117 mg100 g
- 112 mg100 g
- 89 mg100 g
- 78 mg100 g
- 44 mg100 g
- 40 mg100 g
Safety
Choline is likely safe when used below the tolerable upper intake level of 3,500 mg per day.
Excessive choline intake may cause side effects including liver toxicity, vomiting, fishy body odour, excessive sweating, low blood pressure and excessive saliva production. It is also associated with greater type 2 type-2-diabetes and atrial fibrillation risk.
Choline intake may increase the production of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), which is linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Eggs, a common source of choline, do not elevate TMAO significantly when consumed at up to 3 per day.
Frequently Asked Questions
References
Sources19 references
SupplementDEX uses only high-quality sources to determine supplement effectiveness.
1.SupplementDEX Database: Age-related cognitive decline — Effects of an 8-week intake of lysolecithin on cognitive function and concentrations of blood choline and lysophosphatidylcholine: a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial2025
In 23 healthy adults aged 40–74, 8 weeks of lysolecithin (480 mg LPC) did not significantly improve memory versus placebo, though plasma choline and LPC18:2 rose slightly and tolerability was good.
2.SupplementDEX Database: Age-related cognitive decline — Effects of egg yolk choline intake on cognitive functions and plasma choline levels in healthy middle-aged and older Japanese: a randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled parallel-group study2023
In 41 Japanese adults aged 60–80, 300 mg/day egg yolk choline for 12 weeks improved verbal memory scores versus placebo but lowered processing speed and physical quality-of-life scores at 6 weeks.
3.SupplementDEX Database: Age-related cognitive decline — Choline Intake Correlates with Cognitive Performance among Elder Adults in the United States2021
In 2,393 US adults aged 60+, total choline intake of 187–399 mg/day was associated with about 30–50% lower odds of low cognitive performance on word learning and fluency tests versus the lowest intake tertile.
4.SupplementDEX Database: Age-related cognitive decline — Choline chloride effects on memory in the elderly1980
In 10 adults over age 60, 8 g/day choline chloride for 21 days did not significantly improve memory storage, retrieval, or digit span versus placebo periods.
SupplementDEX Database · Athletic performance
3 references5.SupplementDEX Database: Athletic performance — Choline ingestion does not modify physical or cognitive performance2002
In 13 men, 50 mg/kg choline raised plasma choline during exercise but did not improve physical performance, reaction time, reasoning, vigilance, spatial memory, or working memory after exhaustive load carriage.
6.SupplementDEX Database: Athletic performance — The effects of choline supplementation on physical performance2000
In 14 volunteers, choline citrate (8.4 g) before and during 4 hours of load-carriage exercise raised plasma choline 128% but did not improve run time-to-exhaustion, squat performance, or perceived exertion.
7.SupplementDEX Database: Athletic performance — Effect of choline supplementation on fatigue in trained cyclists1995
In 20 trained cyclists, 2.43 g choline bitartrate before brief or prolonged cycling raised serum choline but did not extend time to exhaustion or increase work performed versus placebo.
SupplementDEX Database · Infant development
7 references8.SupplementDEX Database: Infant development — Association between Maternal Choline, Fetal Brain Development, and Child Neurocognition: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Human Studies2022
A meta-analysis of human studies found low maternal choline intake associated with higher odds of neural tube defects (pooled OR 1.36) and higher maternal choline likely linked to better child memory, attention, and visuospatial learning.
9.SupplementDEX Database: Infant development — Prenatal choline supplementation improves child sustained attention: A 7-year follow-up of a randomized controlled feeding trial2022
In a 7-year follow-up of 20 children, those whose mothers consumed 930 mg/day choline in the third trimester showed better sustained attention than those receiving 480 mg/day.
10.SupplementDEX Database: Infant development — Maternal prenatal choline and inflammation effects on 4-year-olds' performance on the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-IV2021
In 48 children at age 4, maternal plasma choline above 7.07 µM at 16 weeks gestation was associated with better processing speed, especially when maternal CRP was elevated.
11.SupplementDEX Database: Infant development — Choline intake during pregnancy and child cognition at age 7 years2013
In 895 mother-child pairs, second-trimester choline intake in the top quartile was associated with 1.4 points higher child visual memory at age 7 versus the bottom quartile.
12.SupplementDEX Database: Infant development — Early second trimester maternal plasma choline and betaine are related to measures of early cognitive development in term infants2012
In 154 mother-infant pairs, higher maternal plasma choline and betaine at 16 weeks gestation were associated with better infant cognitive scores at 18 months.
13.SupplementDEX Database: Infant development — Maternal intake of methyl-donor nutrients and child cognition at 3 years of age2012
In 1,210 pregnancies, higher first-trimester folate intake was associated with better receptive language at age 3; choline, betaine, and methionine showed no significant cognitive associations.
14.SupplementDEX Database: Infant development — Choline concentrations in human maternal and cord blood and intelligence at 5 y of age2008
In 404 mother-child pairs, maternal and cord blood choline concentrations across pregnancy were not associated with child IQ at age 5.
Dosing
2 references15.Choline. Office of Dietary Supplements, NIH. See external sourceExternal source
16.Choline. Office of Dietary Supplements, NIH. See external sourceExternal source
Safety
3 references17.(Choline and type 2 diabetes)External source
18.(Choline and atrial fibrillation)External source
19.(Eggs, choline, TMAO)External source