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Linda Lazarides'
Nutritional Health Bible
an essential reference book for everyone serious about health and nutrition
Treat Yourself with
Nutritional Therapy
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Choline
Vitamin-like substance
Functions
- Component of all lipoproteins
- Lipotropic (helps to remove fat from the liver)
- Structural role in cell membranes
- Synthesis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine
Good food sources
- Egg yolk
- Grains
- Heart
- Lecithin
- Liver
- Nuts
- Pulses
Deficiency symptoms
- Fatty liver and liver impairment
- Possible memory or thought impairment
- Retarded growth
Preventing deficiency
Choline is relatively low in fruits and vegetables, so
those most at risk of choline deficiency (and other deficiencies) are those on
long-term 'fad' diets such as fruit-only regimes. Choline may also be deficient
if liver function is impaired, since a limited amount of choline can be
synthesized in the liver, using the amino acid methionine. As with all other
nutrients, a wide variety of foods, preferably for the most part unrefined, is
the best health protection.
It would be difficult to develop a choline deficiency without also
developing a number of other deficiencies.
SUPPLEMENTATION
In research studies, choline supplements have been found to:
- Foster healing of fatty liver changes in ex-alcoholics
- Reduce the cholesterol content of bile and increase
bile phospholipids
- Reduce the tremors of tardive dyskinesia, a Parkinson's
disease-like syndrome caused by major tranquillizer drugs used against schizophrenia
Preferred form and suggested intake
The preferred form of choline supplementation is
phosphatidyl choline, also known as lecithin. It can be bought in granules and
sprinkled on food or in hot drinks. The usual dosage is 1-2 tablespoons per day.
Cautions
Some forms of choline used in medical practice can give the
body a fishy odour. Phosphatidyl choline (lecithin) does not, and there is no
known unsafe dosage of this form of choline.
Chondroitin sulphate
A long-chain mucopolysaccharide found in connective tissue, which assists bonding between
protein filaments. It may be commercially extracted from cartilage and used as a
dietary supplement to help problems such as arthritis.
Availability: May
be available only through specialist suppliers.
Adapted from the Nutritional Health Bible by Linda Lazarides
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