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Australian pregnant women are not getting enough of the essential nutrient choline, potentially affecting poor cognitive outcomes in offspring, warns a nutrition scientist at Adelaide’s Flinders University.

Professor Tim Green, a public health nutritionist whose research focuses on micronutrients in preconception, pregnancy and lactation, says there is little public awareness of choline’s critical role in supporting maternal health and fetal development during pregnancy.

Choline is found mainly in animal products, particularly eggs, milk, liver and peanuts.