GAL Choline Salt

Our company does not attribute any disease-prevention, treatment, or curative properties to our products, nor do we imply any such properties. That said, in the interest of transparency we provide the following information about the health effects of this product's active ingredients and their scientific background. We aim to present the latest, independent, and authoritative research to give interested readers a clear picture of the evidence. This is not intended to encourage a purchase. If our customers return to us with repeat orders, we hope it is only because they have experienced GAL's benefits for themselves, that is what we believe in, and why we do this work.

What Is Choline Good For?

Choline is essential for the proper function of the brain, nervous system, liver, and kidneys, and it plays a role in keeping every other cell in the body running smoothly. Despite this, a large share of people get far too little choline, which research has linked to a range of problems:

• Declining memory
• Neural tube defects
• Poorly functioning nervous system (meaning heightened sensitivity to stress)
• Insulin resistance and fatty liver
• The development of metabolic syndrome

Where Can We Get Enough Choline From?

Only egg yolk and liver contain it in meaningful amounts. One egg yolk contains around 120–150mg of choline, while 100g of liver contains around 400mg. Intense heat damages it, but ordinary cooking and steaming don't affect it significantly.

Sunflower and soy lecithin are also rich in choline, while among plant foods, quinoa, amaranth, pickled beetroot, and spinach contain a compound called betaine, part of which the body converts into choline. Because of this, betaine intake can also help cover your choline needs, though it's best to rely on it for no more than half of your daily requirement.

How Much Choline Do We Actually Need?

It's worth aiming for a minimum of 500–600mg of choline a day, roughly equivalent to 4–5 egg yolks. Anyone who doesn't eat that much should supplement, for the exact amount you personally need, you can calculate it at kolin.gal.hu.

The Importance of Choline During Pregnancy

Choline is especially important for expectant mothers, who need considerably more of it than average, at least 930mg a day throughout pregnancy.

Beyond being essential for normal fetal development, and so helping guard against birth defects and developmental abnormalities, a 2012 study found that mothers who received 930mg of choline daily during pregnancy gave birth to children with a “better-regulated” nervous system than those who received “only” 480mg.

A “better-regulated” nervous system means that stress levels in both the placenta and the fetus (CRH, cortisol) were lower during pregnancy, and a few months after birth these children showed a better-functioning “stress system” (for example, a better-functioning HPA axis and better feedback regulation).

Infants with this kind of better-regulated stress system tend to stay protected against a range of conditions later in life, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and other stress-related conditions occur less often among them. This is because sensitivity to stress is shaped to a large degree by how the HPA axis develops around birth (a pattern also well documented in premature infants, who as adults tend to be considerably more sensitive to stress and insulin resistance).

Expectant Mothers Need Considerably More Choline

Weston Price made an interesting observation: traditional societies tend to provide expectant and breastfeeding mothers with a higher-choline diet.

If expectant mothers get at least 930mg of choline a day starting no later than the third trimester, that's one of the first steps toward giving their child a more balanced nervous system.

Choline supplementation may also help guard against preeclampsia during pregnancy, since it's driven in part by high placental levels of CRH (corticotropin-releasing hormone), which choline intake significantly lowers. This finding is particularly notable because the comparison group already had a substantial 480mg choline intake, yet 930mg still produced a significant additional improvement. The study used choline chloride (a choline salt), both groups got 380mg of choline from food, with one group supplementing an additional 100mg of choline chloride, and the other an additional 550mg.

One key quality marker for choline salts (and any other choline-containing raw material, such as choline bitartrate) is their amine content, where anything up to 10ppm is considered acceptable. The raw material we use typically has an amine content of about a tenth of that (1ppm), and it's the very same choline salt form used in the study described above.

Neural Tube Closure

Beyond all this, choline also helps guard against neural tube defects, similar to vitamin B9 (folic acid/folate). In fact, when choline is deficient, even adequate folic acid/folate intake fails to fully protect against neural tube defects, while adequate choline intake can still help protect against them even when B9/folate intake is on the low side.

Memory

Higher choline intake during pregnancy has been linked to better memory in children, and, inversely, to a lower rate of rapid memory decline in old age, in proportion to how much choline was received both in utero and later in life. Getting enough choline is especially important up to age four for memory development, but it continues to have a positive effect later in life, even into old age.

Chronic Inflammation

In studies, higher choline intake has been associated with lower systemic inflammation.

Cancer

Research has linked adequate choline intake to a lower risk of certain cancers, particularly liver and breast cancer.

Fatty Liver and Metabolic Syndrome

Low choline intake is associated with fatty liver, and can contribute to the development of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance.