How to get more glycine betaine (trimethylglyicine) in your diet

As discussed earlier this week, we miss out on many dietary sources of glycine betaine (trimethylglycine or TMG) with our western style of eating. Here are easy ways to increase the amount of easily-usable TMG in our diet:

1. Eat more soups/stews and cooked purees, especially ones that contain spinach, amaranth (greens or seeds), beets (greens or roots), quinoa, rye, and wheat (preferably including the wheat germ).
2. Eat bulgur pilaf. (Remember not to drain the cooking water.)
3. Boil pasta in less water and then use the cooking water in your sauce or other recipes.
4. Put TMG in your beverages. When they refine sugar from sugar beets, one of the things they remove from the sugar is TMG, which can be purchased as a food supplement and easily mixed into juice or milk. If the TMG is used properly in small amounts, no one can taste it.

Because there are other nutrients besides TMG in cooking water, I think the first three are preferable, but not everyone wants to change the way they eat.