Choline is an essential nutrient; the authors therefore examined the dietary intake of choline among medical and biochemistry students at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies. Students were asked to make detailed records of all that they consumed for three days. It was found that most, student, had diets that delivered less than the daily adequate intake of choline (425─550 mg/day).

We examined the effects of choline supplementation in young Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats were place into two groups and received either choline supplementation or vehicle over a period of two weeks. We found that the two-week choline supplementation in young rats improved the consolidation of short-term memory into intermediate long-term memory.

We examined the plasma choline concentration of sixteen women attending the antenatal clinic of the University Hospital of the West Indies and found that their fasting choline concentrations were low to normal. This may be a reflection of low choline dietary intake.