For a few unfortunate people, choline has a dark side. An inborn error of metabolism, trimethylaminurea, causes them to smell like rotting fish when they eat high-choline foods.
Sara D. Brown
Clinton, N.J.
Good point. New labeling that identifies foods rich in choline should help people with trimethylaminurea avoid those foods.
–J. Raloff
As a reader concerned about my cholesterol and fat intake, I was ready to throw away my container of egg substitute and buy a dozen eggs when I read the article. Then, I came to the third sentence of the next-to-last paragraph: “. . . a tall glass of skim milk offers as much choline as an egg does.” So, I poured myself a glass of cold skimmed milk (and had a cookie).
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