Cereal foods are the major source of betaine in the Western diet--analysis of betaine and free choline in cereal foods and updated assessments of betaine intake

Ross AB, Zangger A, Guiraud SP · Food Chemistry

Sets the baseline a supplement is added to: cereals supply roughly 60-67% of betaine in Western diets, whole-grain wheat is the best common source and quinoa the richest measured (3900 ug/g), and average intake is about 131 mg/day — far below the gram-level doses used in the homocysteine trials.

Population

Commercially available cereal foods and cereal fractions analysed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Intervention

Measurement of betaine and free choline content, with dietary-intake modelling

Comparator

Across food types and dietary patterns

Limitations

Food analysis plus intake modelling, not a study of any health outcome; intake estimates depend on the dietary survey data they are applied to.