Having to abandon Low-Carb because of gallbladder issues - help!

[Thegallofher]

Have been an adherent of low carb dieting since about 2010. Started off my education with Zoe Harcombe, been on a few of the early Bootcamps. Have struggled at times but whenever I have ever seriously dedicated to losing weight it has always been via a low carb way of eating.I got down to 9st 12 at one point. I am currently 11st 13 (after having lost 2.5 stone in past 18 months)

Recently my DS 14 has got into healthy eating and has shown an interest in the 'science' of food. Cue lots of eggs, avocadoes, steak and kale for him and an interest in cooking up stuff with cauliflower rice, coconut flour. Great.

Then last weekend I had an attack of food poisoning from what I thought was some dodgy sushi. It now turns out that it was probably an attack of gallstones (gallstone attack? billiary collic? not sure of the precise terminology yet) Doctor just phoned me back to say my blood tests have shown some indicators in the liver function tests that confirm this. She wants to take more bloods. In the meantime, and most possibly in the longterm, this means a very low fat diet.

I am gutted!!! I'm having to go back on all that I have come to believe is good for me and start eating lots of carbs. How am I going to do it?! Is there are an alternative? I am going to post in the General Health section too but I wondered if there were any other dedicated low-carbers who had been faced with this predicament because of gall-bladder issues.

The Doctor suggested that it was very likely that my gall-bladder would be removed if I had any more attacks. I am sat in bed, still feeling like I have been kicked in the side by a horse and terrified of all the lovely food I would normally have chosen to eat. Help!

[EliseC1965]

I’m a dedicated low carber and I had my gall bladder removed 10 years ago. Not had any problems since.
GP reckons it was because I went from years of eating low fat for years (achieving precisely nothing) to lchf. Basically sent my gall bladder loopy.
No problem now and my body hasn’t reacted to the high fat and protein badly. I also went from high blood sugar type 2 Diabetes to normal blood sugar range.

[rememberthetime]

It is known that low fat diets cause gallstones. Your gallbladder has to be used to function well. That means that bile (used by the body to process the fat we eat) needs to pass through it regularly to prevent a build up of the deposits that cause the stones. if you have lost weight on a low fat diets you are more likely to have Stones develop. Although - any weight loss can lead to gallbladder issues as they all require periods of hunger and your gallbladder is not used as well as it should be.

So, once you have gallstones, your gallbladder is already irritated and when it functions normally to process the fat you eat, the stones will cause pain.

Unfortunately once the stones are there you need to eat low fat until they are gone or your gallbladder is removed. or you will have gallbaldder attacks.

But that doesn't mean you have to eat carbs. You will be able to process some fat and you can carefully measure how tolerant your body now is by building up slowly.

Lean meats, eggs and dairy might be OK. try not to eat a large amount of fat in one sitting - but spread it over the whole day.

In the meantime push for a gallbladder removal operation. Best thing I ever did and I now eat up to 80% fat on a ketogenic diet and feel absolutely fine.

I'm also surprised that sushi caused your gallbladder attack... It's very low fat. So I would ask for an ultrasound to make sure you actually have stones.

My gallbladder attacks always happened when I had high fat and high carb together. So keeping carbs down may help even if the fat content is higher.

[Thegallofher]

Thanks. I only thought sushi was the culprit when I thought that what i was experiencing was a bout of food poisoning. Knowing now that it was most likely a gallstone attack I can only surmise that I just tipped my system over by maybe just eating out. I’d had a prawn cocktail, followed by a carbonara for lunch and then later on some supermarket sushi. The night before I’d had a fair few glasses of wine and had also snacked on grilled halloumi. I hadn’t eaten a high fat, high carb meal (carbonara) in quite a while - my body obviously couldn’t take it! I am proceeding with caution.

My Dr has asked for another blood test on Wednesday. Be interesting to see what my liver function results will be like after over a week of minuscule fat and zero alcohol intake. I was also asked to drop one of my two blood pressure medications in case that was overloading my liver. At the surgery I recorded my lowest EVER blood pressure reading 104/73. Even on 2 medications my average is usually 135-149/95-98. My weight has come down these past months so I am pondering whether to stay off the 2nd BP medication permanently.

Am eating very cautiously now (lots of 0% natural yoghurt and cereal with skimmed milk). Hope I get on the waiting list for an op soon.