Choline plays an extremely important role in baby growth and development, improving brain development, improving memory and improving human disease resistance. Many careful parents will find that most of the baby milk powder their children eat contains choline.

On February 22, 2021, the National Health Commission and the State Administration of market supervision jointly issued the new national standard for infant formula milk powder, which adjusted choline from the previous selective addition to one of the vitamins that must be added, and the addition amount was significantly higher than before.

What is choline?

The key role of choline is to promote brain growth and development and improve memory. It is an essential component to keep the cytoplasm detailed and form brain tissue. It participates in the whole process of transmitting nerve impulses, solving learning training, memory and sleep quality. In addition, choline participates in lipid transport and metabolism in the body, and improves the digestion, absorption and utilization of human fat.

Choline is essential for brain development

Fetal and neonatal period is a rapid and critical period of brain development. Scientific research has seen that in order to ensure that the baby gets sufficient choline during development, the embryo actively adjusts the transportation to the fetus and baby. The choline concentration in amniotic fluid of pregnant women is 10 times that in maternal blood, and the choline concentration in fetal and baby blood is about 3 times that in maternal blood, It shows that fetal babies need a lot of choline to participate in the growth and development of their own central nervous system and human brain. Similarly, the concentration of choline in the blood of newborn infants is also significantly higher than that of adults. Their unique medium for transporting choline through the reborn blood-brain barrier has a very high transport ability, indicating that the human brain has a strong ability to absorb choline from the blood. Milk is also an effective way for babies to get choline. Therefore, pregnancy and lactation are two key stages for women to obtain choline.

How to get enough choline?

A balanced diet can obtain sufficient choline, especially protein food, meat food, dairy products, fish, egg food, edible fungi, green leafy vegetables, peanut kernel, cereals and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In addition, humans can produce endogenous choline according to the liver, but if they are vegetarians Choline supplementation should be added during pregnancy or lactation to consider insufficient diet or unique physiological needs.

How to get choline?

1. For the mother, whether the intake of choline is sufficient will affect the brain development of the fetus and baby. From the beginning of the 25th week of pregnancy, the hippocampus of the human brain began to grow and develop, and lasted until the child was 4 years old. Therefore, if choline deficiency occurs in pregnant women in the early stage of hippocampal growth and development, it will cause fetal and baby nerve cell necrosis and neonatal brain nerve reduction, thus affecting brain development. Therefore, expectant mothers should balance their intake and diet to ensure adequate nutrition.

According to the reference intake of dietary nutrients for Chinese residents, the daily intake of choline for pregnant women and nursing mothers should be 500mg.

2. The ingredients containing choline include protein food and egg yolk. 100g raw eggs contain about 250 ~ 330mg choline. Followed by meat and dairy products. Choline is also found in peanuts, legumes and potatoes.

3. The new research on milk found that the level of choline was significantly higher than that in the past (from 13mg / 100 kcal to 24mg / kcal). Therefore, ensuring exclusive breastfeeding is the best way for babies to get choline.

4. For babies fed with milk powder, it is best to buy baby milk powder with choline.

After 5.6 months, baby supplementary food containing choline should be added immediately.