Transcript Episode 13: How to Meet Choline Needs in Vegan Kids
Karla Moreno-Bryce: Hi everyone. I am so glad to be back on the podcast. If you are new to tuning in to the podcast, welcome! I'm so happy you have joined us. I’ve been away from sharing content on this platform and I’ve really missed connecting with you in this space. And part of the reason I've been away from the podcast is because I have welcomed a new vegan family member.
I had a baby girl this past July and caring for a newborn and a 4 year old was pretty stressful. It was a bit chaotic this Summer up until Camila, my oldest, started school a few weeks ago. Between diaper changes, Camila needing help with something, nursing for what felt like all the time and trying to feed everyone else,, life just didn't have much room for anything else. And although this phase of our lives has been beautiful in welcoming a baby like bonding with baby during midnight nursing sessions and seeing my older daughter develop her own relationship with her sister, it has been one of the most rough periods of our lives. I’m sure many of you can relate with this season of life.
Majority of the time I was simply caring for baby, which she’s actually joining us as she’s wrapped on a baby carrier, if you can hear her baby breaths, and Luke my husband, who I’m very grateful for his immense help, cared for Camila. It almost felt like we were co-parenting and not something we anticipated but now that baby is 11 weeks at the time of this recording and Camila back at school, it’s starting to feel like we have more of a rhythm and that to me feels really good.
So, that's just a little recap of my life. I wanted to update you all in case you were wondering why the podcast hasn't had new episodes. I'm hoping as I adjust better to our new schedule with a baby, I can continue to come on here and share more helpful episodes in feeding your vegan family.
Now, moving on to today’s episode, I think you’ll find it helpful because we’ll be talking about choline and how to meet choline needs for your vegan child. This is a nutrient that has come up quite recently from vegan parents on Instagram and there’s only so much I can share via post or on stories so I wanted to dedicate a podcast episode on this specific nutrient as it allows me to elaborate a bit more and share more insight to help you feel reassured in meeting this nutrient.
If there’s anything I’ve come to learn from vegan parents like yourself is that you understand the importance of meeting nutrients needs for your vegan kids. While all nutrients are important for the growth and development of vegan kids, there are certain nutrients that you want to learn more about such as how much protein do they need, are they meeting their calcium requirements with plant foods alone. And similar questions come up for choline like how much do they need or how can your vegan child meet their daily needs when they’re not eating enough or when they are selective with their foods.
And I know that you do what you can to not only learn about what these nutrients are and how much they need, but also strive to meet them through your meal planning. And that’s something that I see in each one of you, which you should feel proud of yourself for doing so.
So in today's podcast, I'll be talking about how choline helps support your vegan child's growth, how much they need and how you can meet their needs through your meal planning. I'll also be sharing with you a simple tip on how you can have peace of mind that you're meeting your child's choline needs. In many vegan parents' minds, you're wondering whether they're getting enough from what they eat so my hope is that with this one tip, you can feel reassured they're meeting their needs.
Alright, let's first talk about what choline is. Some of you may have heard of this nutrient and for some of you, this may be completely new. And that's okay. It's part of the reason I like to give you a bit of background when I talk specifically about certain nutrients so that you can have a bit of context as you learn about the importance of this nutrient.
Choline is considered an essential nutrient, meaning that it's required to be consumed from food. Choline is used for maintaining our body's cells healthy, for brain development especially during periods of rapid growth like pregnancy and early childhood, and to metabolize fat. Now, our liver makes a small amount of choline but it's not enough to meet our daily needs. And that's partly why choline is considered an essential nutrient because the majority of our choline needs should come from our diet.
At this point, you're probably wondering what foods provide this nutrient and how much should your vegan child eat of those foods to meet their nutrient needs. So, let's talk about that now.
Some of you may be aware about certain animal-based foods rich in choline, such as eggs and beef liver, and have been told that without your child consuming these foods, they won’t be able to meet their choline needs and thus won’t grow healthfully on a vegan diet. Have you been told that? If so, you are not alone because many parents I speak to often say that their friends or healthcare providers recommend these animal-based foods to their kids.
While these foods do contain choline and are the highest sources of choline, your child does not need these foods to meet their choline needs while following a vegan diet. There are other plant sources that contain this essential nutrient and provide other healthful benefits. One of the highest plant sources that contains choline is soybeans. About ½ cup of roasted soybeans provides 107 milligrams of choline which is roughly about 50% of a toddler’s choline needs for the day. Other soyfoods like tofu, tempeh and soymilk are great options too.
And the great thing about soyfoods is that you can incorporate them into so many different foods. For example, my family really enjoys baked tofu or tofu crumble in a burrito but I also blend tofu into sauces for pastas or have even tried using it for desserts. Tofu is a very versatile food that you can incorporate into your meal planning to meet a variety of nutrients for your vegan child, including meeting their daily choline needs. If your child doesn’t drink soy milk, then you can still use it in recipes like muffins, pancakes, and waffles. About 1 cup of soymilk provides roughly 55 milligrams of choline.
This is partly why you often hear me say that tofu and soy foods in particular are great for vegan kids because it not only provides several nutrients to support their growth and development but it’s so versatile when it comes to using it in your meal planning.
Now, what if your vegan child is allergic to soy? There are several other plant foods that can help your vegan child meet their choline needs. Kidney beans provide close to 50 milligrams of choline for ½ cup of cooked kidney beans. Quinoa provides about 40 milligrams of choline per 1 cup. Cooked lentils are also a source that can provide about 30 milligrams per ½ cup. And your cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts are also great options that provide choline.
At this point, you’re probably wondering “These are great options to know Karla but my vegan child doesn’t eat quinoa. Or they don’t eat enough. How do I ensure that they meet their daily choline needs?” And this is perhaps the most common question for vegan parents like yourself because as I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, you care about your vegan child’s health. And you care about making sure that they meet their daily nutritional requirements so that they grow and develop well on a vegan diet.
So, before I answer that question I want to share the daily requirements of choline per age group. So, if you have a little note pad or somewhere on your phone where you can note these down for reference, you can. Okay, are you ready?
The recommended intake for choline is established by adequate intake, meaning that intake at this level is assumed to meet nutritional needs. Some nutrients are established by recommended daily allowance or RDA as the acronym but because there isn’t sufficient evidence to establish a RDA for choline we have adequate intake. So from birth to six months of age, the adequate intake of choline for infants is 125 milligrams per day. And this can be met through breastmilk and/or infant formula. The adequate intake for those between 7 months and 12 months is 150 milligrams per day. For toddlers between the ages of one to three years old is 200 milligrams per day and the adequate intake for four to eight years old is 250 milligrams per day. And lastly for older school aged children, the adequate intake of choline is 375 milligrams per day.
Now, when I work with vegan parents via private coaching, some want to know exactly how to meet these numbers. They want to know specifically what plant foods to provide and how much of each plant food should they offer their vegan kids so that they meet their daily choline needs. And I admire these vegan parents for committing themselves in doing whatever it takes to support their child’s growth and development. And I know that many of you experience this same commitment.
I want to come back to answering the question of how to ensure that your vegan kids are meeting enough. And what you’ll hear is actually something I tell my clients, so you’ll get a glimpse of how I help vegan parents through private coaching.
While meeting the adequate intake of choline is important for your vegan child and the exact numbers are helpful to be aware of and reference, I don’t want you to fixate on them. Meaning, I don’t want you to measure portion sizes to see how much choline that food provides. And I wouldn’t want you to calculate the amount that your child ate at any particular meal to see exactly how much they took. And the reason being is because this approach not only adds more work to your already busy schedule but it can lead to more anxiety and overwhelm for vegan parents like yourself.
So, instead, the approach that I would want you to take at home is to offer variety. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I talk a lot about variety and for good reason. When you incorporate a variety of plant foods to your child’s diet, you’re helping them meet key nutrients like choline.
And when you’re adding a variety of plant foods throughout the day, I want you to think of it as a way of building up to that adequate intake. So, let’s say you offer soy milk in the morning, that’s offering some amount of choline. Now, you offer cauliflower rice for lunch, that’s offering additional choline. Now, you offer red kidney beans for dinner, that’s adding additional choline for the day. You’re building on those needs throughout the meal and snack so that your vegan child has the most potential for meeting their unique needs. At the end of the day, when you add all those together you more than likely have helped meet your child’s choline needs.
You don’t need to measure anything, you don’t need to calculate every portion size to determine the amount of choline, you don’t need to worry about meeting exact numbers. You just need to offer a variety of plant foods throughout the day, especially foods that are higher in choline so that you give your child the greatest chance of meeting their daily choline needs. And you can follow this same approach for any other nutrient, it doesn’t have to be just choline.
In following this approach, you’ll feel more confident in feeding your vegan child without worrying whether you offered enough of a certain food to meet their choline needs. You’ll feel reassured that you’re on the right track to supporting your child’s growth and development. And more importantly, you’ll feel proud of following a vegan lifestyle with your family.
Now, some of you may be wondering how to actually follow this approach with a picky eater. And let me say that I completely understand the challenge of having a vegan child that has food selectivity. You can find more information about feeding picky eaters in the episode linked in show notes but as far as choline needs, soy milk is perhap my favorite option for picky eaters. And the reason being is because it’s a plant source that is higher in choline and you can include it in many of their preferred foods.
So, if they enjoy smoothies you can make it with soy milk to meet their choline needs. Or let’s say they enjoy waffles, you can make the waffle batter with soy milk and peanut butter to build on meeting their adequate intake. It’s not difficult to do this, it just requires a bit of creativity and a bit of knowledge as to what plant foods provide choline.
And remember, plant foods like soybeans, cruciferous vegetables, legumes like red kidney beans, lentils and chickpeas, and quinoa, and even wheat germ are all sources of choline that you can incorporate into your family’s meal plan.
If you’d like to learn more about meeting your child’s nutritional needs while following a vegan diet, check out my Vegan Kids Nutrition Blueprint course. You’ll master all about key nutrients like iron, calcium, iodine, zinc, and many more. You’ll also feel confident knowing exactly what supplements to offer to your vegan kids so that your kids thrive on a vegan diet. You’ll have access to handouts about what nutrient and how much of each nutrient different plant foods provide. Each lesson includes a short video between 2 - 6 minutes so that you can go through the course quickly and get the information you need as a busy parent. By the end of the course, you’ll have a much better understanding of meal planning for your vegan family and feel confident doing so. You can get all the details about what the course offers with the link in the show notes.
Alright my friends, I hope that today’s episode helped you understand that choline is important to support the growth and development of your vegan kids. By offering a variety of plant foods and especially those that are higher in choline, you can help meet your child’s needs without having to worry about meeting exact amounts. I’ll see you in the next episode. Bye for now.