Can vegans get enough choline?
Short answer: Yes, soya, tofu, beans, cruciferous veg and quinoa all carry choline, and folate-rich plant diets ease the need. Worth tracking, not a wall.
Adequate Intake is 425 mg/day (women) and 550 mg/day (men). Plant foods chip away at it steadily.
USDA FoodData Central; NIH ODS
The objection
“Choline is vital for the brain and liver, and it’s concentrated in eggs and meat. Vegans simply can’t hit the target.”
The answer
Half-fair. Choline is genuinely essential. It builds cell membranes and the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and severe deficiency drives fatty liver. Eggs and liver are the densest sources, and choline gets less attention than it deserves on any diet, vegan or not. This site won’t wave that away.
Less concentrated, though, is a long way from absent. Soya beans, tofu, edamame, cruciferous vegetables, beans, quinoa, peanuts and potatoes all carry choline. The portions add up, and a varied plant diet built on legumes and whole grains lands in a workable range, even if it asks for a little more attention than reaching for an egg.
Two caveats sharpen the picture. First, most omnivores miss the target too: US intake data show the large majority of all diet groups fall below the Adequate Intake, which is itself flagged by the NIH as based on limited evidence rather than firm deficiency data. The “vegans can’t hit it” line describes nearly everyone. Second, plant diets are typically high in folate and betaine, which share some of choline’s metabolic work and may lower the requirement.
So choline is worth being deliberate about. Favour soya, legumes and cruciferous veg, and a low-dose supplement is reasonable in pregnancy, when demand rises. Treat it as a planning point rather than a fate. Clinical choline deficiency in healthy people eating enough whole plant food is not something the evidence shows happening.