Avoid painful gallstones by changing your diet

Most people don’t give much thought to their gallbladder, a small sac beneath the liver that collects and stores bile – the substance that helps digest fatty foods. After you eat, your gallbladder releases bile into the small intestine to break up fat.
Yet as many as 20 per cent of Canadian women and 10 per cent of men have gallstones by age 60, small pebble-like substances that can trigger abdominal pain, bloating, nausea and vomiting.
While diet doesn’t directly cause gallstones, certain foods and eating patterns can increase the risk of developing the condition. Too much animal fat, cholesterol and refined carbohydrates and too little fibre make gallstones more likely. So does carrying excess fat around your midsection.
Yo-yo dieting and losing weight too quickly also have the potential to cause gallstones.
Reduce saturated fat and cholesterol
Cutting back on saturated (animal) fat and cholesterol can change the composition of bile, making stone formation less likely.
To cut saturated fat choose lean cuts of meat, poultry breast and low-fat dairy products.
There’s also some evidence that olive oil – a monounsaturated fat – can reduce the cholesterol content of bile. Other sources of monounsaturated fat include canola oil, peanut oil, avocado, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts and peanuts.
Choosing animal foods that are low in saturated fat will also reduce your cholesterol intake. Cholesterol-rich foods to avoid or eat sparingly include egg yolks, shrimp and liver.
Increase fibre
Fibre in the diet helps guard against gallstones by binding to food cholesterol and bile in the gut, causing their removal from the body.
Insoluble fibre – found in wheat bran, whole wheat bread or pasta, fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds – is thought to be most protective.
Other fibre-rich foods linked to a lower risk of gallstones include lentils and dried beans (e.g. kidney beans, navy beans, black beans, chickpeas).

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