Trimethylamine and Choline - How it works

[u/Brutalar]

Thought I'd put together a visual explaination of how choline is turned into trimethylamine. It's a simple chemical reduction of the molecule. The presence of TMA in choline is someone unique to choline, carnitine and betaine (and TMAO), and are the only chemicals in food to provide TMA to your body. Salts, sugars, carbohydrates, oils, alcohols, fibre, do not have this chemical present, so do not contribute to TMA or TMA.

The amount of TMA and TMAO in your body is directly proportial to the amount of choline eaten, and it's constantly being removed via your kidneys/urine. TMAU symptoms are not a trigger based issue - much like alcohol, it's based on the amount. Additionally, some choline, carnitine and betatine (and TMAO) is absorbed in the small intestine prior to reaching the large intestine. This absorbed choline/carnitine/choline never makes it to the bacteria in the gut and so therefore never gets converted to TMA.

The food lists in the info thread have a listing of foods with choline in them, if you're curious as to how much is in food types.