Eggs early in complementary feeding increase choline pathway biomarkers and DHA: a randomized controlled trial in Ecuador

• DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.117.160515
• Publication Date: 2017-12-01T17:49:07Z
• Authors: Lora L Iannotti; Chessa K Lutter; William F Waters; Carlos Andres Gal...; Carla Malo; Gregory Reinhart; Ana Palacios; Celia Karp; Melissa Chapnick; Katherine Cox; Santiago Aguirre; Luis Narvaez; Fernando López; Rohini Sidhu; Pamela Kell; Xuntian Jiang; Hideji Fujiwara; Daniel S Ory; Rebecca Young; Christine P Stewart
• Keywords: Choline; Betaine

Choline status has been associated with stunting among young children. Findings from this study showed that an egg intervention improved linear growth by a length-for-age z score of 0.63. We aimed to test the efficacy eggs introduced early in complementary feeding on plasma concentrations biomarkers choline pathways, vitamins B-12 and A, essential fatty acids. A randomized controlled trial, Lulun ("egg" Kichwa) Project, was conducted rural indigenous population Ecuador. Infants aged 6–9 mo were randomly assigned treatment (1 egg/d for 6 mo; n = 80) control (no intervention; 83) groups. Socioeconomic data, anthropometric measures, blood samples collected at baseline endline. Household visits made weekly morbidity surveillance. tested vitamin using chemiluminescent competitive immunoassay choline, betaine, dimethylglycine, retinol, acids, methionine, dimethylamine (DMA), trimethylamine, trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) use liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. factors biomarker comparable baseline. Of infants, 11.4% deficient 31.7% marginally In adjusted generalized regression modeling, increased compared following effect sizes: 0.35 (95% CI: 0.12, 0.57); 0.29 0.01, 0.58); 0.31 0.03, 0.60); docosahexaenoic acid, 0.43 0.13, 0.73); DMA, 0.37 0.37, 0.69); TMAO, 0.33 0.08, 0.58). No significant group differences found B-12, linoleic acid (LA), α-linolenic (ALA), or ratios betaine LA ALA. The findings supported our hypothesis introduction significantly other markers its methyl metabolism pathway. This trial registered clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02446873.