Gallstone friendly/low fat diet

[Eve]

I'm hoping to get my gallbladder out soon (http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Body-and-Soul
/Question1076070.html)
and before I left hospital yesterday after my worst attack yet I was told to go on a low fat diet.

Was after a few tips from people who have had gallstone problems and what they found helped (or not) diet wise or general ideas for low fat meals, preferably really cheap simple ones!

Should I be ok with things like low fat coleslaw and lean ham and such or it is best to avoid them altogether? Similarly things like milk, I usually have semi skimmed, and low fat spread.

I've already learnt not to eat too much in one go generally and am eating what I do very slowly.

What should I look out for on packaging as a maximun fat content or should I just try and avoid it altogether?

Thanks for any help, trying to keep the pain down as much as possible before I get the stupid thing taken out and it's good for me anyway so can't be a bad thing.

[annadomino]

If you are having a flare up, just don't eat fat if you can help it, specially dairy and ham or any processed meat. The less fat you eat, the sooner it will calm and you can have it removed.

[nungate]

I worked with two ladies who both had to have their gall bladders removed, and before they had their ops both of them practically lived on salads at lunch time, very plain, no dressings one of them wouldn't eat eggs either.
Didn't the people at the hospital advise you about what you should eat or not? Best to try and steer clear of fats

[bednobs]

hi, get rosemary conely's book

[bednobs]

i think it was called hip and thigh diet - she devised it when she had gallstones

[cazzz1975]

I found problems with hard to digest food like some meats (beef) I stuck with mainly veg's,soups, poultry. milk and yoghurt was not too kind to me either.

[lyall]

The first thing to say is you have my sympathies. I had my gallbladder out on 2004 and it was the best thing that I did. Second I think an important thing to say straight off is what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another. My friend’s mother suffered with gallstones at the same time as me, for her apart from cutting out eggs and fried food like fish and chips she had no problems. Personally I lived off bananas, lettuce, matzo's, thin vegetable soup and bottled water for nearly 11 months! Towards the end I decided to eat half a dry bread bun, no butter/marg/topping, and was in agony for days! Unfortunately I was one of the unlucky ones that just about everything I ate or drank set the pain off, hence my very restricted diet.

When looking at foods stay as low fat as possible, you can’t avoid it completely. Try to avoid processed or pre-packaged food such as ready meals; they are higher in fat than they claim. Low fat foods are classed as less than 3g of total fat per 100g. Choose selected fruit, vegetables, rice and pasta all cooked simply should be ok. If you like meat and don’t want to give it up totally plain chicken breasts without the skin or turkey is about as low fat as you can get. Fish such as cod or haddock; steer clear of oily fish such as salmon, trout and sardines.

It sound so boring and bland I know, but it won’t last forever and if it stops the pain it’s worth it. I was scared to try things again after my op, it took me just over two week to have my much longed for bacon sandwich, fish and chips and bottle of beer, but boy was it worth the wait. It all depends how regimented you want to be. If you know that certain foods don’t set the pain off then keep eating them, you will only find out by trial and error. My GP prescribed an anti spasmodic called Buscopan which helped; I won’t say it stopped the attacks but they did seem to be not quite so intense and didn’t last quite as long as before, especially if I kept taking the full dosage.

I’ve hunted out a couple of web sites, the first is a blog hosted by a gentleman who has had gallstones, there seems to be quite a few posts so you might be able to find some information there. The second is an NHS leaflet called Dietary Advice for People with Gallstones, which gives some good recommendations on about what to eat and what to avoid.

http://jamie.ideasasy...3/the-gallstone-diet/

www.nnuh.nhs.uk/viewdoc.asp?ID=169&t=Leaflet

Good luck for your op, I hope you manage to stay relatively pain free till then.

[Eve]

Thank you all so much, that's really helpful. I'm not good with big/enforced changes to my eating habits, it scares me a bit after previously having an eating disorder when I was younger.

Im much better now but diets (for losing weight) I've tried the since have tended to go drastically wrong so have kept well away for a while but hoping this will be different as medical though being encouraged not to eat or told what to/not to eat generally is not good for me. I am the microwave queen though, bad at getting ready meals and using proper butter, keeping the skin/fat on meat, LOVE cheese etc... and do need to lose some weight so this could really do me good.

I know, I need to grow up and deal with it though. I need to relax generally too as I'm almost just waiting for it to happen again and throw things into chaos again.

Hospital didn't say much at all, was hard enough trying to get anything medical out of them, they are just so busy and understaffed and I was on the emergency surgery trauma unit so not the best place to ask questions (or get an answer). One doctor just said low fat, no cheese or eggs.

I'm hoping to try to get into town later so will see if I can find Rosemary Connelly's book, I'm sure I have one somewhere, maybe her GI one, though it would be buried in a big box in a cupboard under other boxes and not easy to get to so might see if someone can come round and help me fish it out.

I'll go and have a good look at those links too and do some shopping later :)

[lyall]

Glad to hear that you are feeling better. I’ve always been a finicky eater according to my Mum and as I had already lost nearly a stone and a half by the time I got diagnosed I didn’t want to go on a diet and loose yet more weight. My GP was brilliant when I told him that I didn’t want to go on a diet he nodded, smiled and said then don’t think of it as a diet, think of it as treatment, what sense it made! If you think you might have a resurgence of your food disorder go see you’re GP, your previous problems will still be on your records and just explain you’re worried about it coming back and you would like to nip any trouble in the bud.

[Eve]

I'm still not well enough to cope with getting to and from let alone a day at work, still really uncomfortable just over a week on, so staying off tomorrow and hopefully getting myself up and about a bit more and going to ring my GP about my meds (as per post link above) and such and rhumatology nurse/gastro's PA tomorrow and see what I can get sorted.

My friend helped me go round Tesco earlier and I got some low fat soft cheese to have on toast as just been having one little lean ham sandwich without crusts a day since leaving hospital and wanted something different so had a little bit of that on toast tonight.

I got some grapes too so just had some of them and some apple juice I saw recommended on one of your links (so helpful, thank you!). They had some low fat lighter choices ready meals with mince and potatos and veg but don't feel ready for anything that much yet so got a few as on offer and stashed them in the fridge so I have something quick with not much effort needed.

Can stop bloody burping though!

[KidyTrevor]

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Source: http://www.thegallbladdersymptoms.com/