I don’t know whether there is a spate of gallbladder problems doing the rounds, or whether there is just a lot of interest in this little organ, but I’m getting quite a lot of mail and messages asking me to cover it. So let’s look at the gallbladder.
Don’t be frightened or pushed into parting with your gallbladder!! People have told me their doctors have said “you’ll die if you don’t have your gallbladder removed”. Well, if it’s cancer, yes, that’s one reason to part with it. But for the rest, you need to know how important this organ is. The gallbladder is a storage organ for bile which breaks fats down into fatty acids. And by the way, bile is made of cholesterol, just one small reason why you don’t want your cholesterol too low!! We need it for SO many functions in the body.
LOW FAT
And – did you know a LOW FAT diet STOPS THE GALLBLADDER WORKING? It’s true. So does yo-yo dieting, highly refined carbohydrates, high sugar and low fibre intake. This spells disaster for developing gallstones and gallbladder health. Trans fats and ‘vegetable oils’ – including ALL seed oils like sunflower seed oil, margarine, canola oil – INFLAME your gallbladder and cause stones. Even after gallbladder removal, the body still needs healthy fat and your symptoms will continue even without a gallbladder, if you don’t change your diet.
Your DIET has EVERYTHING to do with the health of your gallbladder. If you want to keep this fabulous organ stop eating trans fats, sugar, and refined grain foods like muffins, breads, cake, biscuits, pasta, pizza, sweets, brownies, sugary foods, chips, sodas, fruit juice and energy drinks. They really do spell disaster for your gallbladder!
There are other LIFESTYLE FACTORS that play a role according to scientific studies:
- Overweight people have more gallbladder problems.
- Lack of exercise doesn’t help
- Stop those crazy diets and long fasts – not good for the gallbladder! At all!
- Skipping breakfast and fasting more than 14 hours will increase your risk of gallbladder problems – one reason I’m not in favour of hectic intermittent fasting as a lifestyle although I practice it from breakfast to late afternoon. You do need to eat in the morning.
10 STEPS YOU CAN TAKE:
- Eat plenty of healthy vegetables daily, and grass-fed meat, pastured eggs etc – not supermarket food (and YOU cook it)
- Decrease coffee intake (1-2 cups a day is fine)
- Increase water consumption
- Increase fibre – not wheat fibre though – veggies have plenty
- Eat extra virgin olive oil, butter & coconut oil – your gallbladder loves them and thrives on them as well as animal fat
- Exercise moderately without being obsessive
- Eat plenty of fatty fish and have liver at least once a week
- Remove all the foods you are sensitive to
- Avoid all seed oils – use real butter and olive oil instead (I repeat this due to the importance of it where your gall bladder is concerned)
- Just eat REAL food cooked by yourself from scratch
(PS: Did I say stay away from seed oils and eat healthy fats? 😜 )
Wishing you a happy fat-filled (on the plate, not the body) rest of the week and weekend ahead xx
