By Brad Dieter

Choline is an often overlooked nutrient and one that athletes ought to give more attention.  In addition to its myriad of health benefits it plays a central role in human performance.  One of choline’s main roles in the human body is in integrity and synthesis of the nervous system and the synthesis of acetylcholine (the neurotransmitter that makes your muscles go). In sports requiring high performance, nervous system adaptations are critical to success and eating a diet that optimizes neural adaptations is critical. While most athletes are aware that their diet is critical in fueling muscle growth and aiding in recovery, most fail to consider is that their diet also effects their nervous system adaptations to training. Eating a diet rich in choline allows you to essentially “increase to bandwidth” to your muscles, enhancing the message between the brain and the muscle fibers, resulting in more efficient and coordinated movements, speeding up the neural adaptations to training.

Additionally, choline may actually increase your performance. Choline has been shown to be a “protector” of Nitric Oxide. Nitric Oxide increases blood flow during exercise, allowing the muscles to receive more nutrients and oxygen. During exercise Nitric Oxide is critical to in allowing maximal performance, so having an adequate amount of choline to support optimal Nitric Oxide is critical to optimal performance.

Choline may also improve your overall capacity for high-intensity work. Choline is converted to betaine which improves the buffering capacity of muscles and allows for longer duration of high-intensity bouts of work. This might come in handy when you are thrown into the fourth quarter and the game is tied!

The great thing about choline is that it is not a mysterious, hard-to-find, nutrient. In fact, it is found in large quantities in foods that have other health benefits. Here is a list of choline rich foods!

Brad Dieter is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Idaho in the Movement Sciences department. He is an athlete and nerd who is constantly pushing himself to be a better athlete, coach, and scientist. He is a nutrition wizard who also happens to love weightlifting and developing athletes. He  and Mike Vaccaro  run Evolutionary-Health.com and work hard day in and day out to bring next-level information and techniques to the health and fitness scene.