Choline has made a few headlines in recent years, often accompanied by dramatic warnings about the perils of a plant-based diet. If the warnings are anything to go by then if you’re vegan you’re doomed to choline deficiency and cognitive decline, right? Not quite.
Let’s take a closer look at what choline is, why it matters, and whether it really needs to come from eggs, liver or other animal products (spoiler: it doesn’t).
As a UK-based vegan dietitian, I’m here to give you the facts without the industry spin and help you feel confident about where you’re getting your nutrients from.
Choline is a nutrient that plays several important roles in the body. It helps us make acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in memory and muscle control. It also supports liver health by moving fats out of the liver, helps build phospholipids (important components of cell membranes) and plays a part in DNA regulation through methylation (a process that helps regulate gene activity). Plus, it is a particularly important nutrient in pregnancy.
Although our bodies do make some choline in the liver, it doesn’t make enough to meet our full needs. Choline is therefore termed an ‘essential’ nutrient because we need to get some from food.
Back in 2019, an opinion piece was published in a medical journal warning of an impending “choline crisis” as more people move towards plant-based diets. The article was widely shared in the media and understandably sparked concern among vegans and vegetarians.
But here’s the thing… it wasn’t based on any new evidence. There was no data showing any risk of deficiency in the vegan or general population. And interestingly, the author had links to sectors of the food industry that benefit from promoting choline-rich animal products, namely eggs. Now, it’s important to note that working with industry isn’t inherently a bad thing, many of us do it for good reason, but when it involves promoting exaggerated or questionable claims that just so happen to benefit that industry, it’s worth raising an eyebrow.
This article is a classic example of how the animal agriculture industry can quietly steer the conversation on nutrition to protect its interests; by exaggerating risks of cutting out animal products and omitting the plant-based options that support both health and sustainability.
In a word: no. There is no evidence of widespread choline deficiency in the UK among vegans or anyone else. In fact, deficiency is incredibly rare and typically only seen in clinical situations (such as people with liver disease, genetic alternations, or those on long-term IV feeding).
In the UK, there is no set recommended daily intake for choline, which is partly due to a lack of robust data, but which also says a lot about how much of a population-level concern it really is. Our bodies produce some choline on their own which reduces how much we need from food and, if your diet is balanced and varied, you’re likely getting enough.
If it was a real problem, dietitians like me would be recommending choline supplements for our vegan patients and clients… but we don’t.
In fact, in response to the media headlines, The Vegan Society provided this response:
“This nutrient is widely distributed in plant foods because it’s present in cell membranes. Soya products, quinoa and broccoli are some of the best plant-based sources.
You do not need to take a choline supplement when you switch to totally plant-based nutrition if you eat a balanced and varied diet containing plenty of minimally processed plant foods. The evidence base shows that this way of eating can support excellent health.”
There is no doubt that eggs and liver are high in choline, but they come with a side of saturated fat, zero fibre, planetary damage and animal cruelty. Luckily for us, they’re far from the only options. Here are some plant foods that provide choline as well as other health-promoting properties such as fibre and antioxidants:
These are all common and accessible foods that are found in UK and global supermarkets. If you’re including a variety of these in your diet, it’s likely that you are doing just fine.
One of the big concerns around lack of choline is cognitive issues. However, not only is choline found in plants, other properties of plant foods, for example unsaturated fats and fibre, can actually improve cognitive health. In fact, studies suggest that a healthy plant-predominant diet (namely the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet, known as the DASH diet) is actually associated with a lower risk of dementia.
It’s worth stepping back to ask: why are we still so quick to believe scare stories about plant-based diets? Often, it’s because of subtle (and not-so-subtle) messaging from industries that profit from animal agriculture. Over the years, we’ve seen the same tactics used with protein, iron, B12 and omega-3s. The pattern is clear: pick a nutrient that animal products contain (bonus if some people in the UK run short), warn the public they can’t live without that nutrient (and therefore that animal food), and voila – the seed of doubt about the safety of avoiding meat, eggs or dairy is sown.
Let’s be clear, nutrient needs are important and something I spend my life studying and advising on, but they should never be used as weapons to profit industry and undermine ethical, sustainable choices… especially when those nutrients are available in plants.
Choline is an essential nutrient, but the idea that vegans are at risk of deficiency is not backed by evidence. Our bodies make choline, deficiency is rare, and plants contain it too. You don’t need to eat liver or eggs to meet your needs. When you see alarmist headlines about nutrients and veganism, it’s always worth asking… in the absence of robust data, who benefits from this narrative?
So, keep enjoying your tofu, lentils and veg. The science is on your side – and so is your conscience.
Written by Rosemary Martin RD
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