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Home › Articles › Eating For Two › Getting Enough Choline?

Getting Enough Choline?

An Essential Pregnancy Nutrient

By Teri Brown

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The Importance of Choline in Pregnancy
Choline is important for the structural integrity of our cell membranes, the breakdown and utilization of fat for energy and cholesterol transport and elimination from the body, Dr. Paul says. Choline is significant for communicating information from nerve to nerve and also plays an important role in male and female fertility. Also crucial is how it affects the unborn child's brain.

"Animal studies show that choline is essential for development of the memory center in the brain," Dr. Paul says. "Choline helps increase the number of cells in the memory center during a critical period of brain development. Animals whose mothers were fed supplemental choline scored better on memory tasks throughout their entire lifetime compared to animals born to mothers who were choline deficient. Choline deficiency also increases the risk for neural tube defects, especially in women who do not consume enough folate."

Dr. Randy Fink, a Miami, Fla., OB/GYN and Fellow with the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, says that during pregnancy, choline stores can be depleted.

"Prenatal vitamins contain lecithin, which is a partially absorbable form of choline, but it may not represent an adequate enough daily amount," Dr. Fink says. "Recently, more attention has been paid to choline in pregnancy, and some see it as a miracle brain drug for unborn babies; some say it "supercharges the brain" of the unborn fetus. This arises from data in laboratory animals. Pregnant rats that were given extra doses of choline had offspring that learned more efficiently and had better memory function. Those that were deprived on choline had poorer memory capacity. The changes – both for better and for worse – seemed to be lifelong."


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