Talk to me about low fat diets

[MicCheck]

I've never paid much attention to fats in food. But I have a dodgy gallbladder so I need to watch my diet and apparently high fat foods will aggravate it.

So what can I eat?
I know this sounds like such a silly question. But I've had quite a bad diet recently. And if I was trying to eat 'healthier' then I would opt for full fat versions as they kept me fuller for longer.

Add to the mix that I've not long been diagnosed with coeliac disease, I've got a lot of changes to make (I've already gone gluten free)

Oh, and I do need to lose weight, ideally 3 stone.

[FlatheadScrewdriver]

Ah, the avoiding-excruciating-gallbladder-pain diet, I remember it well. My sympathies.

Avoid, or suffer the consequences: cheese, butter, oil, cream, chocolate, pastry, fatty meat like some sausages or pork. Usually safe: pasta, rice, potato (jacket, boiled, or mash without butter), white fish, turkey, lean ham, chicken, pretty much all fruit and veg. What passed for a treat as dessert was a meringue nest, fat free fromage frais, and raspberries. Or jelly. But that got old quite quickly!

Meals I recall eating a lot: jacket potato, veg, fish; pasta with veg/tomato sauce or lean mince bolognese; pasta salad or rice salad home-made for lunches (lots of veg chopped in, bit of very low fat mayo, tuna)... To be honest you can do very low fat versions of most meals if you're prepared to cook. I'm not a desperately keen cook but I managed it In winter home made veg soups are good.

When desperate, marshmallows are very low fat (but obvs v high sugar so you know, moderation and all that...depending on the kind of day you've had). Hope you soon feel much better.

[MicCheck]

Thank you @FlatheadScrewdriver !
Although I am a little 😳 at all the things I need to cut out.
But if it stops this horrendous pain then it's worth a try. I can't pinpoint exactly what causes a flare, but given your list of food, it could be anything I've been eating!

On the plus side, I should hopefully lose some weight if I need to cut out butter, cheese & chocolate. Silver lining and all that.

Did you have your gallbladder out @FlatheadScrewdriver or do you still manage it with diet?

[MicCheck]

Don't know where all that bold text came from 🤨

[FlatheadScrewdriver]

I had it taken out. But for various reasons because I am a stubborn bugger I managed for almost two years from diagnosis to having the op so I could do it at a time that suited me. The surgery was very straightforward and I've had no problems since. Obviously go by whatever your dr is advising though.

Restricting the fat did mean the agonising flare ups pretty much stopped. It was boring, but effective. This was ten years ago (how did that happen??) so there were none of the very low fat ice cream options that exist now. I think I ate a lot of sorbet but you may find you have more choices.

The very low-science memory I have of why the low fat helps is this: when you eat something with fat in it, it reaches your stomach, and the stomach goes "fat! I'll need some bile to digest that" so it sends a message for "bile please". Bile comes from the liver but is stored in the gall bladder, and when the message comes, the gall bladder squeezes to release the bile to the stomach. If you have gallstones / a poorly gall bladder, that squeeze will bloody hurt. For ages. So the less fat you eat, the less bile is demanded, and less pain.

[MicCheck]

Thank you @FlatheadScrewdriver I've been trying to explain it to my OH but he just doesn't understand what could be wrong with my gallbladder. Hopefully your explanation will make sense to him!