Background: Choline is an essential nutrient involved in a wide range of physiological functions. It occurs in water- and lipid-soluble forms in the body and diet. Foods with a known high choline content are eggs, beef, chicken, milk, fish, and selected plant foods. An adequate intake has been set in the US and Europe, however, not yet in the Nordic countries. A higher intake of lipid-soluble choline forms has been associated with increased risk of acute myocardial infarction, highlighting the need for knowledge about food sources of the individual choline forms. In general, little is known about the habitual intake and food sources of choline, and individual choline forms.Objective: Investigate foods contributing to the intake of total choline and individual choline forms.Design: The study population consisted of 1,929 patients with stable angina pectoris from the Western Norway B Vitamin Intervention Trial. Dietary intake data was obtained through a 169-item food frequency questionnaire. Intake of total choline and individual choline forms was quantified using the USDA database, release 2.Results: The geometric mean (95% prediction interval) total choline intake was 287 (182, 437) mg/d. Phosphatidylcholine accounted for 42.5% of total choline intake, followed by free choline (25.8%) and glycerophosphocholine (21.2%). Phosphocholine and sphingomyelin contributed 4.2 and 4.5%, respectively. The main dietary choline sources were eggs, milk, fresh vegetables, lean fish, and bread. In general, animal food sources were the most important contributors to choline intake.Conclusion: This study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to assess the intake of all choline forms and their dietary sources in a European population. Most choline was consumed in the form of phosphatidylcholine and animal food sources contributed most to choline intake. There is a need for accurate estimates of the dietary intake of this essential nutrient to issue appropriate dietary recommendations.

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Background Choline is an essential nutrient for humans and is involved in various physiological functions. Through its metabolite betaine, it is closely connected to the one-carbon metabolism and the fat-soluble choline form phosphatidylcholine is essential for very-low-density-lipoprotein synthesis and secretion in the liver connecting choline to the lipid metabolism. Dietary recommendations for choline are not available in the Nordic countries primarily due to data scarcity. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the dietary intake of total choline and individual choline forms, dietary sources, and the association of total choline intake with circulating one-carbon metabolites and lipids. Methods We included 5746 participants in the Hordaland Health Study (HUSK), a survey including community-dwelling adults born in 1925–1927 (mean age 72 years, 55% women) and 1950–1951 (mean age 48 years, 57% women). Dietary data was obtained using a 169-item food frequency questionnaire and choline content was calculated using the USDA Database for Choline Content of Common Foods, release 2. Metabolites of the one-carbon and lipid metabolism were measured in a non-fasting blood sample obtained at baseline and association with total choline intake were assessed using polynomial splines. Results The geometric mean (95% prediction interval) energy-adjusted total choline intake was 260 (170, 389) mg/d with phosphatidylcholine being the main form (44%). The major food items providing dietary choline were eggs, low-fat milk, potatoes, and leafy vegetables. Dietary total choline was inversely associated with circulating concentrations of total homocysteine, glycine and serine and positively associated with choline, methionine, cystathionine, cysteine, trimethyllysine, trimethylamine-N-oxide and dimethylglycine. A weak association was observed between choline intake and serum lipids. Conclusion Phosphatidylcholine was the most consumed choline form in community-dwelling adults in Norway. Our findings suggest that choline intake is associated with the concentration of most metabolites involved in the one-carbon and lipid metabolism.

Background: Red and processed meat intake have been associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality, and a restricted intake is encouraged in patients with cardiovascular disease. However, evidence on the association between total meat intake and clinical outcomes in this patient group is lacking.Objectives: To investigate the association between total meat intake and risk of all-cause mortality, acute myocardial infarction, cancer, and gastrointestinal cancer in patients with stable angina pectoris. We also investigated whether age modified these associations.Materials and Methods: This prospective cohort study consisted of 1,929 patients (80% male, mean age 62 years) with stable angina pectoris from the Western Norway B-Vitamin Intervention Trial. Dietary assessment was performed by the administration of a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate the association between a relative increase in total meat intake and the outcomes of interest.Results: The association per 50 g/1,000 kcal higher intake of total meat with morbidity and mortality were generally inconclusive but indicated an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction [HR: 1.26 (95% CI: 0.98, 1.61)] and gastrointestinal cancer [1.23 (0.70, 2.16)]. However, we observed a clear effect modification by age, where total meat intake was associated with an increased risk of mortality and acute myocardial infarction among younger individuals, but an attenuation, and even reversal of the risk association with increasing age.Conclusion: Our findings support the current dietary guidelines emphasizing a restricted meat intake in cardiovascular disease patients but highlights the need for further research on the association between meat intake and health outcomes in elderly populations. Future studies should investigate different types of meat separately in other CVD-cohorts, in different age-groups, as well as in the general population.

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