NIH Office of Dietary Supplements - acquired 2026-07-23 - Official Reference
Back to Foods & Bioactives
Established useBasic Entry
Brain & Cognitive
Choline
Compounds involved in energy metabolism, membrane structure, neurotransmitter pathways, or researched cognitive-performance contexts.
Page last reviewed: 2026-07-23 - next review due: 2027-01-23
Source Coverage
Included: US reference
Review gap: Canadian reference
Add or verify Health Canada context where an official Canadian reference exists.
Review gap: EU reference
Add or verify EFSA or EU health-claim context where an official EU reference exists.
Review gap: Clinical / safety source
Add a clinical review, safety monograph, systematic review, or other deeper safety reference before strengthening claims.
Function
Supports acetylcholine synthesis, cell membranes, and methylation pathways.
Natural Sources
Egg yolks, beef liver, salmon, chicken, soybeans, Brussels sprouts.
Food vs Supplement Context
Natural sources describe where this item appears in foods, culinary ingredients, or traditional preparations. Concentrated supplements can differ by dose, extract type, preparation, standardization, and medication context, so they should be evaluated separately.
Testing & Monitoring Context
- No routine lab test establishes a required daily need for most foods and bioactives; monitoring is usually based on the intended outcome, dose, medical history, and adverse effects.
Suggested Guidelines When Purchasing
What to look for: Prefer a product identity that matches the studied ingredient or ordinary food source described on this page.
Use caution or avoid: Avoid products that hide dose, source, standardization, allergens, or safety-relevant ingredients.
- Prefer ordinary food sources first when they provide the intended compound in a practical way.
- For supplements, require clear labeling of active ingredient, dose per serving, serving size, and other ingredients.
- Prefer products with third-party testing or transparent contaminant testing, especially for concentrated extracts, algae, mushrooms, minerals, and sports products.
- Do not let marketing claims override the evidence, safety flags, source coverage, or dose context on this page.
Intake Guidance
Official DRI available
AI: 550 mg/day for adult men and 425 mg/day for adult women; pregnancy 450 mg/day; lactation 550 mg/day.
Official Adequate Intake values exist and should be displayed from the nutrient grid for the selected population.
Evidence Summary
Claim-level study review has not been added yet for this item. Treat this as a basic catalog entry until evidence claims are reviewed.
Evidence Legend
Established use: Supported by official guidance, regulatory claim context, strong consensus, or repeated human evidence for a specific use.
Promising: Human studies or reviews suggest benefit for specific outcomes, but evidence is not broad enough to treat as settled general guidance.
Emerging: Early human, mechanistic, or mixed evidence; worth tracking, but not strong enough for confident user-facing claims.
Traditional use: Historically or traditionally used, but modern clinical evidence may be limited, mixed, or product-specific.
Category example: Included to describe a supplement or food category, not because a strong health claim is attached yet.
Research Links
Use this as a research discovery link. Search results are live and may change, so curated sources on this page remain the fixed references for app content.
Search term: Choline supplementation human studies systematic review
Sources
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine - acquired 2026-07-23 - Official Reference
U.S. Department of Agriculture - acquired 2026-07-23 - Food Database