This is big news, and it's really about food.
The trial (University of Colorado, 206 pregnant women) gave 9,000 mg/day of phosphatidylcholine from 16 weeks until delivery. At ages 3 to 4, their kids averaged 7.78 IQ points higher than placebo. The authors call phosphatidylcholine "the form of choline occurring naturally in food."
The best sources of choline (NIH):
Beef liver, 3 oz: 356 mg
Eggs, 1 large: 147 mg
Beef top round, 3 oz: 117 mg
Ground beef, 3 oz: 72 mg
Chicken breast, 3 oz: 72 mg
Compare broccoli: 31 mg per 1/2 cup.
The authors suggest about 900 mg of choline a day in pregnancy. That's about 6 eggs, or a serving of liver plus a few eggs. Or about 29 half-cup servings of broccoli.
Meanwhile NIH says 90 to 95% of pregnant women don't even reach the basic 450 mg/day, and most prenatal vitamins have little if any choline.
(Yes, they used a supplement. Attention problems didn't change, and a third of the moms dropped out before the 4-year visit. The IQ result was still significant.)
For decades we told pregnant women to fear egg yolks and red meat. I covered choline in a video (see below).
I suspect Choline is conditionally Essential in pregnancy. So why are we still steering moms away from the foods richest in it?
Study and my video below...
JUST IN: Children whose mothers took choline supplements during pregnancy scored +8 IQ points higher at age 4 than those in a placebo group, major new study finds.