TABLE 3.

Primary food groups contributing to choline and betaine intakes in the MEC at baseline (1993–1996)¹

	Total choline		Betaine
Rank	Food sources2	Contribution, %	Food sources2	Contribution, %
1	Meats	13.1	Non-whole grains	43.1
2	Eggs	10.4	Whole grains	15.3
3	Poultry	9.9	Dark-green vegetables	12.6
4	Milk	7.5	Alcohol	7.3
5	Non-whole grains	7.2	Meats	2.9
6	Other vegetables	4.5	Poultry	1.9
7	Fish, shellfish	3.9	Fish, shellfish	1.4
8	Alcohol	3.9	Milk	1.3
9	Other fruits	3.8	Soybean products	1.1
10	Beans, peas	3.6	Other starchy vegetables	1.0
Sum		67.8		87.9

¹MEC, Multiethnic Cohort.

²Food source categories are based on the MyPyramid Equivalents Database food subgroups: alcohol (beer, wine, hard liquor, other alcohol); meats (beef, veal, lamb, pork, ham, bacon); milk (whole, 2%, low-fat, skim, and ice milk); orange vegetables (carrots, pumpkin, other yellow vegetables, carrot juice); other fruits (fruits other than citrus fruits, melons, and berries; including red papaya, other pink fruits, mango, yellow papaya, peaches, apricots, other yellow/orange fruit, apple, banana, pear, pineapple, green papaya, green mango, other miscellaneous fruits, other fruit juice); other vegetables (vegetables excluding dark-green, orange, and starchy vegetables and tomatoes; light-green cruciferous, asparagus, light-green lettuce, other light-green vegetables, cauliflower, other cruciferous, onion, seaweed, other miscellaneous vegetables); other starchy vegetables (corn and tubers, other than potatoes); soybean products (tofu, soy other than tofu, soy sauce).