Question: I have Gall Bladder disease. How would you support healing with food? Most people are told never to eat fat again, especially after surgery. - Natalia
Answer: You can and should eat the right kind of fats, even if you have your gall bladder out–you still need the benefits of saturated fat and the vitamins that these fats contain. A lowfat diet will cause the gall bladder to atrophy and a diet of the wrong fats (trans and commerical vegetable oils) will cause the gall bladder to be inflamed. Remember that the gall bladder is only a storage place. Even if you have had your gall bladder taken out, your liver will still make bile. It may be helpful to eat your meals at very regular intervals so the liver gets used to releasing bile at these times. You can also take an ox bile tablet with meals to aid in fat digestion.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine patients with disorders of any organ are told to eat that organ. Since it’s difficult to find gall bladders in your local butcher, try organic lambs fry, which is the liver. The B Vitamins, Vitamin A, Protein and minerals will aid in healing. Also very bitter vegetables and herbs like rocket are good for healing the liver/gallbladder. - Ed
About the Author...
Sally Fallon is founding president of the Weston A Price Foundation, a non-profit nutrition education foundation with over 400 local chapters and 9000 members. She is also the founder of A Campaign for Real Milk, which has as its goal universal access to clean raw milk from pasture-fed animals. Author of the best-selling cookbook Nourishing Traditions and also of Eat Fat Lose Fat (Penguin), both with Mary G. Enig, Phd, Sally has a encyclopedic knowledge of modern nutritional science as well as ancient food ways. Her grasp on the work of Weston Price is breath taking and her passion for health freedom, inspiring. In each edition of Nourished Magazine Sally answers your questions about nutrition, health, food and medical politics. Send us an email with your question and we'll put it to her.
Apr 26th, 2007 at 10:23 am
My mom has gall bladder disease and she can’t have fatty foods,spicy foods,caffeine,chocolate,peppermint,or alcahol and she needs a list of food that she can eat
Apr 26th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Sure avoid foods cooked in vegetable oils. Spicy foods are not necessary for health but animal fats are. I would agree that caffeine including chocolate are a no go as is alcohol. I don’t know about peppermint. I would add refined sugar to the list of don’ts too.
What she can eat is outlined in the Weston Price Foundations recommended Characteristics of traditional foods.
Jul 17th, 2007 at 10:55 am
My Quack, sorry, Doctor told me to have my gall bladder taken out, but I instead did some internet research and my intuition told me to go on a low fat diet, no cream, no cheese, no SATURATED fats and only whole meal bread, pasta and whole grain rice.
One year now without pain.
Jul 21st, 2007 at 12:37 am
I’ve had my gallbladder out, there has been some reserach that people having intestinal surgery (including gall bladder removal) can show signs of vitamin A deficiency years later. So try to avoid having it removed if you can. Actually my gallbladder problems started after I went on an allergy elmination diet where the only fat I could eat was sunflower or safflower oil!
Anyway you can still get stones in your liver after your gallbladder has been removed. I recommend lots of beetroot including beet kvass daily to remove gallstones. I passed several stones (and that’s years after having my gallbladder out) after having beetroot juice daily for a few weeks..
Jul 25th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
The problem with this solution is that you could end up losing something else. . . like part of your small intestine. This kind of diet is really deficient in nutrients and very difficult to digest. As an alternative, I’d suggest that you introduce fats slowly and supplement with ox bile at meals and also consume lacto-fermented foods, which help the body digest fats.
Jul 30th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Can anyone tell me where I can obtain ox bile in Australia? I had my gallbladder out years ago and would like to eat more of the good fats. Thanks.
Aug 3rd, 2007 at 12:07 am
Hi, As a nutritionist, I prescribe oxbile in a fomulation with pancreatic enzymes and hydrochloric acid. Unfortunately, this is a ‘practitioner only’ product so must be prescribed by a therapist. Have a chat to yours and see if they can obtain it.
Jul 28th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I had my gall bladder removed when I was 20 years of age. Now at the age of 53 I am having digestion problems and intestinal cramps. Does anyone know if these symptoms are related to not having a gall bladder? I was never told to go on any special diet or eliminate certain foods. I am taking Lecithen at the moment, I am not overweight and have a fairly balanced diet.
Jul 29th, 2008 at 9:04 am
I think it’s the other way around, cut out the saturated fat now, and maybe like me, you can evade surgery. Two years now without an attack and the only thing I do differently is not have saturated fats. Especially my double helpings of cream on cakes etc. That’s it, just cut out the saturated fat, maybe it will work for you as well. Of course my orthodox doctor scoffed at the idea and put it down to coincidence. He wanted to book me in for surgery on the first visit, without even asking anything about my diet.
Who are the real quacks and charlatans?
Jul 30th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Avoiding fats will momentarily stop your symptoms but the nutrients you miss out on are the very ones you need to heal the inflammation and rebuild the body in the long run. Gail, might I suggest you contact one of the practitioners on the Nourished MarketPlace.
Jul 30th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I said cut out or at least down on saturated fats, not all fats. I also said that I’ve been attack free for two years having gone ,ore vegan than eating dairy fats.
Aug 3rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Hello
I’ve just had my 2nd attack now. I’m 48. Just been diagnosed that some blood readings probably suggest I have an inflamed gall bladder. Dogray I’m interested in the way you have suggested to go forward. What food have you specifically cut out? What have you taken up?
I’m a big lover of chocolates, mocha coffee and biscuits. Any particular substitutions or what levels each day have you reduced to? Thanks.
Aug 4th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Hi Peter,
I’d try to see if full cream milk chocolate is carrying too much saturated fat for a start, which I’m fairly sure it will.
Don’t worry, you’ll stop missing these treats after a very short time, I used to love Tira Mi Su, and I’d even have second helpings of cream with it, I think that was the main cause of my attacks, also cream sauces on pasta etc. Try cutting out all dairy for awhile and see if you still get the attacks. I have been veg for 22 years and my diet consists mostly of soy products as replacements for dairy.
I had a little search for you and found this interesting article. I think everyone on this post should read it http://gallbladder-attack.blogspot.com/
Don’t believe doctors who want to rush into the first spot in the operating theatre, as I said before, my doctor didn’t even ask me about my diet, he just said go and get your gall bladder removed, as a 1st option, rather than the last, just as well I didn’t listen to this quack. Medical doctors are rubbish, go and see an alternative therapist like a naturopath if the low fat diet doesn’t work. An MD should be your last resort as far as I’m concerned. Get on the internet and educate yourself about the gall bladder before visiting a doctor, you will probably know more than they do by the time you do your research, because you can sure they won’t bother, they are so smug in their orthodoxy that they act as if they are the last word in health, which is totally untrue. How many doctors do you think would suggest a totally meat free diet, I’ve been veg for 22 years and I’m in peak health, I live a life that is more like someone 25 year my junior.
If they look like a quack, sound like a quack and speak like a quack, then guess what, they probably are a quack.
A chiropractor saved me from a back operation and becoming dependent on the pain relieving pills that a quack was prescribing. The internet saved me from having my gall bladder removed that a quack advised. A naturopath saved me from becoming addicted to anti-depression medication handed out like candy by an MD, whereas the naturopath rightly saw that I had a vit B deficiency which was effecting my nervous system. Sure, if you must, get an opinion from an MD, but don’t stop there, as there are other sciences outside or the orthodox approaches, that aren’t stuck in the mud.
Thank god I listened to my intuition and not these quacks. Good luck. Let me know how you get on. Also have a look at http://www.thereleaseeffect.com for relaxation, as stress is a factor as well.
Aug 15th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
My first of hundreds of gallbladder attacks was when I was 17 and weighed 43 kilo (am now 50 and weigh 60 kilo), it was suggested I have an op but I hated hospitals so did not, did not eat fatty or spicy food so diet did not help. At 25 I collapsed in pain and had my Gall bladder removed, now have a scar about 7 inches long but have never regretted having it out. It did take time after the op to work out what I could eat and not eat and the only thing I could not tolerate is sugar and mushrooms, But now I have an stomach Ulcer so back to working out what I can not eat.
I know several people that had key hole surgery to remove stones and all have had trouble later for a long time, glad key hole was not around when I had mine done.
Aug 18th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Thank you for all your comments, it’s seems fats and sugars are a problem without a gall bladder. Like you Julie, I had the operation the old way and also have a 7 inch scar. I’ve started to cut back on all saturated fats and I’ve also cut down on my fruit intake. I’m a big fruit eater and read in the local Sunday paper that certain fruits have to much fructose and can be very difficult to digest. Out goes the apples. I eat lots of green vegetables and also found out that green beans and asparugas have heaps of fructose. So far so good.
Aug 18th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Hi Julie,
Saturated fats can come in the form of sweets as well, chocolate, sugary things that turn to fat if not used up quickly like an athlete.
Anyone reading Julie’s post, my advice would be to at least experiment with your diet before going under the quack’s knife.
Let me give you an example of how these imbeciles running around with their trusty scalpels think.
A committed vegetarian friend of mine went to a doctor and he did some tests and found she was lacking in Iron, so he told her straight away to start eating meat. This is the level of these charlatans imagination, and they have conned us into believing everything they say is gospel. How? by having a huge association of members paying their dues, most of whiuch is used to scare the hell out of us into visiting them every time we sneeze. They bleed us dry through the high cost of medical bills and insurance that comes from these high costs. They are usually quite smug and set in their ways (orthodox ways that is) and have no ability of thinking outside the squares.
OK, so here is what he could have done, he could have helped my friend find a balanced diet that was still veg but one that would increase her iron intake.
Could he bothered, of course not, but I bet if she went to a naturopath, they would have had a lengthy chat about her diet and advised her on how to experiment and try to find more iron without having to go against her beliefs about cruelty and torture of animals, but like me and you, she too was brainwashed by constant media hype propagated by a sea of lobbyists hired by the AMA to convince us that these quacks are demi-gods and that we are lucky to have them.
My grandmother’s remedies were much more accurate than the hit-rate I’ve had with quacks over the years.
Things like, rub salt into mouth sores and also into mosquito bites, simple.
Go veg and go alternative.
For gall-bladder problems, experiment with spicy, sugary and saturated fat food groups, or any other foods that are hard to break down, like white carbs, try to stick to wholegrain everything. It’s your life, so take some responsibility for it. If I hear one more person say, “Oh, but I love the taste of cream and cheese, and chocolates, and white bread and fatty sausages, Big Mucks and dead rotting animal corpses” I think I will scream. Take your life back, and look outside of orthodoxy, we now have the internet, use it. Get back to real foods.
Aug 19th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Hi Dogray, sorry if you thought I meant go under the knife at first suggestion, that I believe is a last resort (as it was with me, 8 years after they told me to have the op). I shuffled foods around and found what was causing attacks and avoided them, that worked pretty good for a long time also found what one person could not eat another could eat it without the problems. But once the problem became to much and I collapsed I was not impressed having to go under the knife (back then key hole was not an option). Going on friends and family that have had the keyhole op to remove the stones, I am glad I have the huge scar as I have had less problems later, although it did take a couple of years to find what foods were best for me after the op and they were sugary things as in sweets, chocolate and sugar in tea or coffee. I now only have a sugar burst if my blood sugar levels drop, red meat is another I can not tollerate very well (no loss as I did not eat it much before) .
I am not vegetarian, just don’t like meat, and feel every one should eat what is right for them and in moderation, I do still prefer my food as we had it as kids back in Tas, fresh picked from the garden or orchards and the meat we did have was from our own farm.
100% agree ..experiment first before taking to the knife or believing a quack first up …I did for 8 years, and am again experimenting with alternative remidies for other wealth issues …the knife is last resort.