Gallbladder in pink
Do gallstones improve or worsen on a low carb / high fat diet? It’s a common question with an interesting answer.
The gallbladder stores bile, a yellow-green fluid manufactured in the liver. The bile is used to digest the fat you eat. The question is: Is it good or bad for the gall bladder to eat fat?
The conventional fat phobic answer
The usual medical belief today is that fatty food can result in gall stones. This is because what happens if you already have gallstones in the gallbladder and eat fat: A gallstone can get stuck on the way to the intestines and give you a gallstone attack (pain in the top right part of your stomach).
The conventional advice is thus to eat low fat – and take pain killers if you get a gallstone attack. If the attacks continue the gallbladder is removed by routine surgery and the problem usually goes away. Probably with the side effect of slightly decreased ability to absorb fat and nutrients from what you eat (there is a reason we have gallbladders).
The conventional low fat advice rarely makes gallstone disease go away. Instead it often gets worse with time, until surgery is necessary. That is hardly a coincidence.
How to get gallstones
If you eat low fat less bile is needed to digest your food. More bile thus stays in the gallbladder. Long enough, perhaps, for stones to form. It’s been shown that people who (instead of fat) eat more carbohydrates are at increased risk of gallstones.
It all sounds logical. And there is even better evidence. The risk of low fat diets have been tested at least three times:
Studies of extreme low fat diets
- In a study of 51 obese people using an extremely low fat low calorie diet (just one gram of fat a day!) the gallbladder was examined by ultrasound before the diet and after one and two months. After one month four of the 51 participants had developed new gallstones. After two months more than one in four (13 people) had new gallstones! This on an almost fat free diet. Three participants needed to have their gallbladder removed during the study.
- A similar study examined 19 people eating an extremely low fat low calorie diet over 16 weeks. At the ultrasound examination at the end of the study five people (again about one in four) had new gallstones.
- A third study compared an extremely low fat diet with a diet slightly higher in fat during 3 months. More than one in two (6 of 11 people) in the group eating extremely low fat developed new gallstones. Nobody in the group eating more fat did.
Conclusion: Do you want gallstones? Avoid fat.
What happens if you do the opposite?
What if you were to do the opposite of the usual advice? Regularly eat food with fat in it? Then more bile will be used to digest the food. The bile ducts and the gallbladder will be flushed through regularly. Probably no stones will have time to form, and pre-existing stones might (if you are lucky) be flushed out into the small intestine.
The risk is that you will get gallstone pain in the short term – if you already have gallstones.
The question is: Do you want to think short-term (low fat) or long-term (higher fat)?
Does high fat food work?
It’s logical to think that food higher in fat can result in a gall bladder free from gallstones. But as far as I know no study has tested high fat food to people with gallstones.
On the other hand I know quite a few people who have experienced that their gallstone disease disappeared on a LCHF diet. Sometimes at the expense of initial gallstone attacks though.
A Swedish low carb site conducted a survey of its members. 145 people who used to have gallstones answered what happened since they started eating LCHF. Take the result with a huge pinch of salt as this kind of survey gives very unreliable answers:
This survey gives some support to the theory that high fat food can cure gallstone disease.
Gallstones and kidney stones
Patients with kidney stones get better advice. They are told to drink a lot of fluid, increasing the production of urine, so that stones do not have time to develop. If you already have kidney stones this advice could give you a painful kidney stone attack initially – but you are still advised to drink a lot.
The reason why we give the opposite advice when it comes to gallstones might be the obsolete fear of fat. If we were afraid of water instead patients with kidney stones might have been advised to avoid drinking to avoid kidney stone attacks. If they did not improve their kidneys would be surgically removed.
What do you say?
Have you had gallbladder problems? Have you tested a LCHF diet? What happened?
Mer
PS
Another common question is if you can eat LCHF if your gallbladder is already removed. The answer is that this seems to work fine.
Some people without a gallbladder might have to increase their intake of fat gradually to allow their body time to adapt. Otherwise the body might not have time to digest the fat which could result in loose fatty stools initially. However this rarely seems to be a problem.
221 Comments
"Patients with kidney stones get better advice. They are told to drink a lot of fluid, increasing the production of urine, so that stones do not have time to develop. If you already have kidney stones this advice could give you a painful kidney stone attack initially – but you are still advised to drink a lot.
The reason why we give the opposite advice when it comes to gallstones might be the obsolete fear of fat. If we were afraid of water instead patients with kidney stones might have been advised to avoid drinking to avoid kidney stone attacks. If they did not improve their kidneys would be surgically removed."
Marguerite, it is 8 years since I did my gallbladder flush, so the same recipe took a bit of finding. I found it at: livestrong.com under the heading; Epsom Salt and Olive Oil Detox. It is practically verbatim of the one I used.
A friend tried another recipe, but it didn't work for her. Mine was far more detailed, though, with several days preparation.
I feel obliged to say that I am not a doctor and I don't know your medical history. Having your doctor's advice and support would be reassuring. However, as intelligent adults we have to make our own, informed, decisions, at the end of the day!
When you check out the recipe you will see you have a choice of lemon or grapefruit; if it is of any interest, I used the latter. If you decide to do it, I would love to know the outcome. Following are some tips: 1. Drinking the final concoction through a straw, is a good one. 2. Time it in advance to suit your schedule, and make sure you can have a complete day of rest, the day after the flush/detox.
My experience: No sooner my head touched the pillow than I had to throw back the covers and run to the bathroom, where I seem to remember spending most of the night. So be prepared! All the best,
Linda
Hello Animor, going by your last paragraph you seem to have got it, at least as I understood it! It was simply an analogy to highlight the irony of the standard advice. Perhaps the good doctor would correct me, if I am wrong.
The standard advice does leave those practicing it with "their knickers in a twist," when it comes to seeing the logical answers on this and other issues, like diabetes!
As water flushes the kidneys, oil keeps the gallbladder flushed and refreshed. However, when there are already stones, it is can be quite a painful process. There again it is very painful having the stones and there is always the chance that a gallstone will block the exit, requiring immediate surgery, which can happen at any time. Stones are better out than in and for myself I preferred the flush to the surgery. Though, of course, it cannot be guaranteed to work! But, there again, nothing ventured, etc.
It was much easier than I thought. But the Epsom Salts were horrible!!! The grapefruit and oil mixture was really quite tasty. I thought that part would be quite unpalatable. I put the mix into my Magic Bullet and voila it was all mixed and ready to drink.
To avoid any problems just make sure you know before that you don't have any big stones or you could land in the hospital and have to have your gallbladder removed. Then take the time to prepare for the 5 days before. It is well worth it (except for the horrible Epsom Salts!).
You can look at the Livestrong method or Hulda Clark's cleanse as well.
Good Luck
Hope this helps :-)
Why would you do that?
"... undiluted juice each morning..."
Why would you do that?
I'm repeatedly surprised by comments
on this site. It's as if they haven't read
even the basics of what this site is about.
Point 2 - undiluted juice (a splash) you try taking Apple Cider Vinegar neat..!!
if you have points to make Bill, make them, not just repeat quotes, that's not helpful in the slightest.
What is "LCHP"?
You said: "...APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, a splash of this in undiluted juice...",
not a splash of juice. You seem to be confused
about what you said.
What of my questions do you not
understand?
Personally, I think you are just picking for the sake of picking, I was trying to be helpful with regards to gallstones, end of story..!!
LCHP - low carb, high protein
Yes, a 'splash of apple cider vinegar' in a 'splash' of undiluted juice, not a full glass, I assumed I was talking to intelligent people therefore, didn't feel the need to write a splash of undiluted juice also, I thought this would be obvious, my mistake.
I do not and have not said I don't understand your questions
Anyway, I am getting bored of this back and forth, I have better things to do.
That might be a different website, not this one.
This one is LCHF - low carb high fat.
http://www.drclark.net/cleanses/advanced/liver-cleanse-page/liver-cle...
It is important to do a kidney cleanse first and a parasite cleanse.
That was a year and a half ago. Now I am trying low carb again, and on my second day, I've started getting a little bit of that upper stomach pain AGAIN!!! Well I just went and made a sandwich, and it feels a little bit better. WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?
What I am unable to do is eat wheat. That brings me severe diarrhea. I suggest anyone who has had their gallbladder out who is thinking their diarrhea is because they are eating fat with carbs, following gallbladder surgery should remove all carbs and see what happens. You have nothing to lose.
I now realise the pains I use to get about 12 years ago must have been gallstones, may be they passed, may be they lay dormant, but this is when I was doing raw foods, juicing and low fat. I now wonder if the stones became bigger when on the HFLC diet because by going into Ketosis I was losing lots of weight and with it lowering my cholesterol, which has to surely be passing through the liver and gallbladder.