Choline

About specific vitamines, minerals or fiber, for example
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Kasper
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Choline and acetylcholine

Post by Kasper »

Another reason to eat eggs:

Another health benefit of eggs is their contribution to the diet as a source of choline. An egg contains about 113 mg of choline. Although our bodies can produce some choline, we cannot make enough to make up for an inadequate supply in our diets, and choline deficiency can also cause deficiency of another B vitamin critically important for health, folic acid.

Choline is definitely a nutrient needed in good supply for good health. Choline is a key component of many fat-containing structures in cell membranes, whose flexibility and integrity depend on adequate supplies of choline. Two fat-like molecules in the brain, phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin, account for an unusually high percentage of the brain's total mass, so choline is particularly important for brain function and health.

In addition, choline is a highly important molecule in a cellular process called methylation. Many important chemical events in the body are made possible by methylation, in which methyl groups are transferred from one place to another. For example, genes in the body can be switched on or turned off in this way, and cells use methylation to send messages back and forth. Choline, which contains three methyl groups, is highly active in this process.

Choline is also a key component of acetylcholine. A neurotrasmitter that carries messages from and to nerves, acetylcholine is the body's primary chemical means of sending messages between nerves and muscles.
dime
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Re: Choline and acetylcholine

Post by dime »

Liver contains even more choline than eggs, if I remember correctly.
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RRM
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Re: Choline and acetylcholine

Post by RRM »

More than whole eggs, yes.
Egg yolks contain 6.8% phosphatidylcholine (containing choline, glycerophosphoric acid and 2 fatty acids),
plus 0.49% sphingomyelin (containing ceramide and either phosphocholine or phosphoethanolamine)
which seems to translate to roughly 0.82% choline in total.

Choline in mg / 100 gram:
820 egg yolk
333 ox liver
84 cod
66 chicken
65 mackerel
64 tuna
40 beef, muscles only
Kasper
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Choline

Post by Kasper »

I think the wai calculator is a little outdated as choline is considered an essential B vitamin now.
As the wai diet is rich in egg yolks, it meets the requirements of choline.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choline
fred
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Re: Choline

Post by fred »

Look at the links between choline and Cardiovascular disease/prostate cancer (via TMAO conversion) :

CVD:

"Intestinal microbiota metabolism of choline and phosphatidylcholine produces trimethylamine (TMA), which is further metabolized to a proatherogenic species, trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO). " : http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v19/n5 ... .3145.html
Gut flora metabolism of phosphatidylcholine promotes cardiovascular disease : http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 09922.html
Intestinal microbial metabolism of phosphatidylcholine and cardiovascular risk. : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23614584

Prostate cancer:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/91/3/712.full : "A plausible mechanism that may explain our observed association between eggs and prostate cancer progression is high dietary choline. Egg consumption is a determinant of plasma choline, and higher plasma choline was recently reported to be associated with a greater risk of prostate cancer (50, 51). Malignant prostate cells have higher choline concentrations than do healthy cells, and choline kinase is overexpressed in prostate cancer (52–54). In addition, because of the increased uptake of choline by progressing prostate tumors, radiolabeled choline is used to identify early prostate cancer recurrence (55). No studies have examined dietary choline and prostate cancer risk or progression; however, higher dietary choline has been associated with an increased risk of colorectal adenoma in women (56). "
"Of the 47,896 men in our study population, choline intake was associated with an increased risk of lethal prostate cancer." : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22952174
"Men who consumed 2.5 or more eggs per week had an 81% increased risk of lethal prostate cancer compared to men who consumed less than 0.5 eggs per week" : http://cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjou ... 0354.short
Detection of increased choline compounds with proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy subsequent to malignant transformation of human prostatic epithelial cells. : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11325827

I wonder if the detrimental effect of choline observed in these studies could be explained only by the fact that they use cooked food.
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RRM
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Re: Choline

Post by RRM »

Kasper wrote:I think the wai calculator is a little outdated as choline is considered an essential B vitamin now.
Yes, I agree.
fred wrote:I wonder if the detrimental effect of choline observed in these studies could be explained only by the fact that they use cooked food.
Of course, as is the case with cholesterol.
Also, you quoted 3 studies for choline and cardiovascular disease (CVD).
They did not observe a detrimental effect of choline.
They observed the partial metabolism of choline into TMAO, which is 'associated' with atherosclerosis.
They speculate that CVD may be caused by the intestinal production of proatherogenic species (TMAO),
a waste product from carnitine (an antioxidant made from lysine and methionine, preventing lipid peroxidation) and choline, which doesnt sound very plausible as a cause of CVD to me.
They refer to a study identifying choline, TMAO and betaine as 'risk predictors for CVD'.
This study reviewed 74 studies about choline, betaine and CVD, and found "no significant association with CVD incidence",
and that "long-term consumption of choline and betaine has been shown to prevent CVD mortality by decreasing inflammation and other risk factors".
Rajaie S et al Full Free Text
fred wrote:Look at the links between choline and prostate cancer
Not impressive.
Various cancer cells thrive on various nutrients. That does not make these nutrients dangerous, in any way.
It just means that cancer cells need nutrients, as normal cells do.
The 4th study is about elevated choline levels in human cancer cells.
The 1st and 3rd study are about the association between egg consumption and prostate cancer (and some bonus speculation).
Yes, the consumption of cooked eggs may have adverse effects (cholesterol readily oxidizes).
That leaves only study number 2.
In the 2nd study, the study population is 47,896 men. The number of men who actually died from prostate cancer is 695.
Thats means that the lethal prostate cancer group numbered only 695, and the number of controls was 47,201...
Also, choline intake is associated with egg consumption...
And, of course, associations alone are not enough.
fred
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Re: Choline

Post by fred »

Thank's RRM.

Here is a nice debunk of the first study : http://understandnutrition.com/2013/04/ ... /#more-616

"In summary, Koeth et al. present an interesting hypothesis but they fail to address several serious study flaws. First, other compounds besides carnitine have TMA-containing structures such as choline and betaine, which are consumed by both vegans/vegetarians and omnivores. The authors showed in their initial study that diets with high amounts of choline and betaine produce the same atherosclerotic lesions in mice as carnitine, but do not take this into account in their hypothesis. Secondly, the mouse studies examined the effects of free choline, betaine, and carnitine in quantities greatly exceeding physiological doses. Third, seafood contains TMAO and consumption of seafood increases plasma levels of TMAO, but regular seafood consumption decreases rather than increases the risk of heart disease. Fourth, the sample size used in the comparison of TMAO production in vegans/vegetarians versus omnivores is too small to draw conclusions and factors besides meat consumption may explain the difference. Lastly, the basis for their hypothesis is that vegetarians have lower rates of heart disease than omnivores. However, when health-conscious omnivores are compared to vegetarians this association vanishes, promoting the idea that it is not the meat that increases risk of heart disease; rather meat consumption is a surrogate marker for an overall less-healthy lifestyle of omnivores than vegetarians, on average."
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