{"id":910629,"date":"2026-09-30T05:10:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T05:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910629\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T05:10:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T05:10:25","slug":"choline-the-underconsumed-nutrient-that-might-help-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910629\/","title":{"rendered":"Choline: The ‘Underconsumed’ Nutrient That Might Help Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts don\u2019t think<\/a> there\u2019s a single cause of anxiety, a mental health condition that affects millions<\/a> of UK adults. Genes, chemical imbalances, and environmental conditions might all<\/a> play a role. <\/p>\n

But a paper published in Molecular Psychiatry<\/a>, which analysed 25 different studies, showed another possible link: it found that people with anxiety typically had less choline in their bodies than those without the condition.<\/p>\n

Assistant Professor Jason Smucny, of the University of California, Davis (UCD), said<\/a>: \u201cThis is the first meta-analysis to show a chemical pattern in the brain in anxiety disorders.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said the analysis suggests nutritional approaches \u2013 like appropriate choline supplementation \u2013 \u201cmay help restore brain chemistry and improve outcomes for patients\u201d.<\/p>\n

What is choline?<\/p>\n

Choline is an essential nutrient that systems like our liver, nerves, metabolism, and muscles rely on to function. <\/p>\n

Our liver makes some choline, but not enough to meet recommendations. The substance has been dubbed<\/a> \u201cunderconsumed and underappreciated\u201d by researchers, who say that about 90% of the US population is \u201cwell below the [adequate intake levels] for choline\u201d. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a 2024 study<\/a> found that \u201cin the last decade, choline intake among [European] adults has been insufficient\u201d.<\/p>\n

What might choline have to do with anxiety? <\/p>\n

The Molecular Psychiatry study we mentioned earlier compared the levels of neurometabolites (which are made during the brain\u2019s metabolisation process) among those with and without anxiety. <\/p>\n

They found that the 370 participants with an anxiety disorder had, on average, 8% less choline than the 342 participants without the condition. <\/p>\n

UCD\u2019s Professor Richard Maddock, who was the study\u2019s senior author, said that while an 8% lower amount \u201cdoesn\u2019t sound like that much\u201d, in the brain it is \u201csignificant\u201d. <\/p>\n

This study only found a link, and not a cause, meaning we certainly can\u2019t say that choline deficiency causes anxiety.<\/p>\n

In fact, Prof Maddock himself stated, that we \u201cdon\u2019t know yet if increasing choline in the diet will help reduce anxiety\u201d and said more research is needed. <\/p>\n

However, he added that \u201csomeone with an anxiety disorder might want to look at their diet and see whether they are getting the recommended daily amount of choline\u201d \u2013 especially since most of us aren\u2019t getting enough of it to begin with.<\/p>\n

Of course, in the case of anxiety, this should be done in conjunction with appropriate professional care, and not instead of it.<\/p>\n

What are some good sources of choline? <\/p>\n

The European Food Information Council (EUFIC)<\/a> said that adults over 18 should aim for 400mg of choline a day, with the exception of pregnant and lactating people, whose \u201cneeds can go up to 480mg and 520mg of choline per day, respectively\u201d. <\/p>\n

Egg yolks are a a very rich and easily-absorbed<\/a> source of choline. Two fried eggs deliver 73% of your daily dietary reference value for choline, for instance. <\/p>\n

Meat (like<\/a> beef and chicken breast) and fish, Whole grains, Vegetables (especially<\/a> potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, and cruciferous veg, like broccoli and cauliflower),Fats and oils, in that order.<\/a><\/p>\n

The EUFIC says it\u2019s very unlikely someone would consume too much choline from food alone. The recommended upper limit is 3.5g a day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Experts don\u2019t think there\u2019s a single cause of anxiety, a mental health condition that affects millions of UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[520,64,63,137,514,515],"class_list":["post-910629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-anxiety","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}