gallstone diet

[Babyramone]

Hi have already posted re my gallstones. I have been trying to follow a low fat diet but not sure how low to go. Do I have to cut out fat completely (don't you need some fat for certain body functions)or is there a set percentage I can have.
I assume vegetable better than animal?
I like things like cheese and mayo are there any decent alternatives or do I accept can't have.

I will watch this with interest. I have just been told i have gall stones. I'm not very good at cutting bad foods out though and suffer when i go OTT!
Am seeing the Dr on thursday.

Thats me exactly tortoise, I like a bit of chocolate, cheese, a curry etc. Can't imagine life on grilled fish and veg.
I really have to do something though as had an other attack this weekend, still not great.
I'm seeing Dr on tuesday to discuss scan result.
Have you had scan yet?

I found that my body dictated the amount of fat by giving me hell after eating any!

i was diagnosed with gall stones last jan, had gall bladder removed in dec - went for a 3% or under fat diet which worked for me with no attacks, tho if i went over i knew about it - lost nearly 5 stone as a result...with the threat of a load of pain i found it really easy - let me know if you want any recipe ideas...

I had gall stones and had to follow a low fat diet and basically I was ok as long as I ate nothing with more than 5% fat content. Cheese and mayo are definte nono's unless they are extremely low fat.

I was skinny too - those were the days!

Thanks have bit of an idea what to look for now on labels.
Hattiecat some recipes would be great.
TBH this is the scare I've been needing for ages. 6 years ago I was a size 12-14 depending on time of month, what shop etc.
Now I'm an 18 edging towards a 20
Is it any wonder I've got problems, have 7 month old too.
your right about sticking with it as the pain is awful. I had to take 2 £20 taxi trips to our local hospital on friday night as was in so much pain. It was £40 well spent.

no probs babyramone - i will have a think and get back on. i was massively strict i must admit as the pain is so hideous isn't it? far far worse than being in labour imo because there is no let up to it...leave it with me and i'll get back to you!

thanks Hatticat hear from you soon.

Hi Babyramone.
I had a scan about a week and a half ago. She told me i do have gall stones but my Dr did say many people do have them with no problems. I'm sure that is what causes my painful attacks. They are really awful and it has helped me cut down on fatty food but not enough. So far attacks seem fairly mild most times as long as i put a hot wheat bear on as soon as pain starts. I do need to lose weight which does help.

i would love some recipe ideas too. Most of the time i have been having salad. cheese doesn't seem to bad for me. I do put a bit on my salad often!

I don't really know what to look for on labels and am trying to learn to cook better!

Look forward to any tips or food odeas!

I'm alrightish if I have 5% or less fat. I'm trying to lose weight as I want to be lighter before undergoing a general anaesthetic to have my gallbladder out so have joined Weightwatchers just over a week ago. I use their recipe books a lot. Last week I had pizza (homemade with no cheese) aubergene madras, lentil moussaka, lentil & red pepper curry, pasta with tomato sauce. Went away for the weekend and my friend was cooking, we had chicken wrapped in lean bacon with new potatoes & veg, then yesterday roast turkey, dry roasted potatoes (with spray light) swede & carrot, green beans, cabbage, low fat gravy. I've found that by using Spray light you can make most things pretty low fat.

I get really miserable if I can't have a few treats so have had meringue nests with 0% fat greek yoghurt (a bit of sweetner mixed in) & raspberries, WW recipe tiramasu & chocolate brownies and been fine with those. Unfortunetly I felt really car sick on the way home yesterday and at loads of rich tea biscuits to help with the sick feeling - really knew about it at 1 am this morning.

The other thing that helps me is not eating much in the evenings and having my evening meal before 6pm.

Hellmans extra light mayo is 5% fat, for chocolate I sometimes have a Cadbury's light chocolate mousse frozen which is like chocolate ice cream.

My friend who I stayed with at the weekend has just joined Rosemary Conley and had a little booklet which shows the % fat in a lot of basic food which was a bit of an eye opener. I quite like WW so am sticking with that but have ordered the Rosemary Conley GI jeans book as her diet is based round eating 5% fat or less - her original hip & thigh diet came about after she was diagnosed with gallstones I think.

Have a look at Rosemary Conley books as her original book said she had discovered that diet from what she ate to avoid surgery for gallstones.

The rest is history...

Will definatly look in to joining WW and getting the Rosemary Conley book. Thanks for those tips.
I have had quite a bad weekend and had to visit out of hour at local hospital again tonight as was in agony. Had nothing fatty to day. Salad no dressing and bread wi ham on no spread as have had intermittent attacks since friday. Eventually my own strong painkillers took effect so hosp didn't do anything but think it may be inflammed so if happens again tonight I may get admitted for emergancy surgery.
I am actually now terrified to eat.
Tonight was the worst. Had it for 4 hours and was vomiting. Had to get DH home early from work which I never do. Still feel tender but drugs def helping, I'm quite spacey infact.

That sounds awful for you.Maybe best if you do have emergancy surgery. Get it over and done with.
I have been a lot better food wise today. But its really hard to find things to eat when DC are eating things i like!

I was diagnosed with this whil epg with my 2nd, last year.
I asked for a referral to dietician as I was concerned about my diet while pg. She told me that the lastest findings are that a low fat diet does not help with gallstones!

I must admit, tho, that I carried on being careful with what I ate. cheese was a big no-no adn couldn't find an alternative.
Eating little and often is supposed to help, too.
The one other thing i found out, tho, was that skimmed milk actually has a higher calcium content than full fat milk.

Thanks flier thats interesting. on urgent list for surgery. Think going to eat really healthy as need to lose shed loads and am terrified of reoccurance.
Husband going around being smug and saying told you should've done something.
Thanks for your support
My SIL is a nutrionist so may give her a bell.
Like the idea of eating little and often.

Hi Babyramone = here are some ideas. i shop at tesco, so most of it is buyable from there. breakfast - shreddies/weetbaix with skimmed milk. lunch - you need to careful of the sort of bread that you eat as some with seeds on can be quite high fat content. you can fab healthy eating naan breads from tesco in the fresh bread section. i bunged one of those in the toaster and had with assortment of fillings - cream cheese (lowest fat you can get and not too much) with salsa dip (usually fat free) or tesco sell lovely cooked flavoured chicken which i warm up and then stuff into the naan bread. its lovely! ideas for tea - tesco sell arabiatta sauce in fresh pasta sauces which i cooked chicken or fish in (put the chicken in raw it will cook fine) then chuck a load of veg in and cook some pasta and its a v healthy meal for all the family to eat. i also had healthy eating sausages which were a bit of taste and if just had one found i was fine with it. i now only eat those if we have sausages cos i think they're nicer! erm...baked beans are fine as is tinned ravioli but it had to be heinz as tesco own brand had higher content! chinese chicken - 2tbs hos sin sauce, 1tbs honey, 1tbs sugar, 1tbs soy sauce - marinade chicken in it then heat all up together, stir fry some veg in and throw so noodles or rice in to finish it off - very tasty! white fish - wrapped it in foil with some lemon juice and coriander and put in oven. oh yes! tesco healthy eating breaded fish (frozen) and healthy eating chips (chunky) but be careful as you can tip over if have too many chips - need to weigh them out (my hubby cooked this for me one night - i thought he'd checked how much he'd given me but he hadn't and i had a mild attack) however, next time cut down on the chips and it was compeltely fine! for a treat we went to waitrose a couple of times and they do nice fresh pasta and pasta sauces which were very good! tesco also sell a range of chicken breasts in sauces - tomato and basil, jalfrezi - had those with veg and were fine, but didn't give them to rest of family - handy to have in though cos if you're giving the rest of the family fatty stuff then they are very easy to cook. treats - i got addicted to jelly tots !!!!! They were my saviour if i wanted somehting sweet and naughty...
my dd2 was just 8 weeks old when i started with gallstones and i breastfed her til exclusively til she was 6 months old and then with solids until i went into hosp to have gall bladder out in december (she was over 12 months) so its rubbish that a highly low fat diet won't sustain breastfeeding - she put on weight fine and was very contented so i had no issues with this whatsoever.
i hope this is helpful and you get a few ideas - i will have a think about what else i used to do - its the healthiest i've ever been in terms of diet and has really made me assess what i eat - in the end i lost nearly 5 stone and have put nearly a stone back on (don't have a problem with this, though would like to lose a half again, but don't we all?!)

let me know if you want anymore info about the op etc - and good luck - once your body gets used to the fat free idea your attacks really should become less. x

Wow Hattiecat thanks for that. I two shop in tesco so will be easy to get things. Good about the beans and ravioli as love the stuff.
Didn't actually realise there was so many things possible, thought was going to be living of grilled chicken and salad.
What with ideas Chocolateteapot and you have gaven I think I'll manage this.
How did you find the op, was it keyhole and how was the recovery. My DR said should be keyhole but depends where your gall bladder is and how easy it is to find etc. Now wondering if being overweight will make it hard for surgeon.
Also how much support did you need afterwards.
I have 3.5 year old and 7 month old. Don't breastfeed anymore.

I didn't find a low fat diet helped me but unusually I didn't get pain after eating but in bed at night, so you should try it. My Dad's atacks were definitely fat related - eat sausage roll - cue pain!

A&E sent me home with an antacid so I put up with excruciating pain for another three months before going to my GP as I was so embarrased about going to A&E with indigestion. I was in so much pain I was hyperventilating - did they really think that was indigestion? I suppose they get all sorts

Hi There, I was diagonosed with gallstones when ds was 3 months and had attacks of terrible crippling pain that were usually brought on by fatty eating. I joined weight watchers which did reduce the attacks greatly but if I did cheat i suffered for it.
You don't have to be really strict but sensible. Ie I would lay off fish and chips, duck, curries and anything both rich and fatty but I noticed I got away with sweet things so could indulge in my choc fetish!
one morning I was breathless and had to ring ambulance who picked me up and had ds on my tummy! DH was away.
They gave me morphine for the pain and gave me ds back as there was NOONE to look after him until my mum arrived 3 hours later!!!
Really sympathise with you all re pain. It is horrible.
Apparently pregnancy can bring on gallstones, it isn't just weight. Also yo-yo dieting.

babyramone, my dd was about 6 months old and my ds just over 3years when i got my keyhole surgery for gallbladder removal. My mum came to stay to help for 10 days which i was glad of. wasn't really able to lift anything for around 7 days but some people are sooner than that.
I was quite worried as hadn't had a general anaesthetic befroe let alone surgery, apart from a spinal, but it was all very straightforward. there is loads of info online on the subject.

hth

hi babyramone - had mine keyhole which is easier recovery but was told that they wouldn't do it keyhole if i hadn't been attack free for a good few weeks cos of the risk of one of the stones getting caught in the bile duct (which one of mine did early on but they think i passed it cos went very jaundiced and they thought i was going into liver failure!!!!!!!!) anyway, in terms of the actual op - it hurt like buggery after - i recommend highly pyjama bottoms or jogging bottoms by the truck load to ease off the painful areas. i had my dh at home with me for 2 weeks, but i also am recoering from something called guillian barre syndrome which hasn't helped in the slightest. there was no way i could have picked up dd2 (12.5 months at the time) for at least a week with the pain of the op so i would get as much round the clock support as you can. keep trying to think of other things i ate as well so will keep at it! x

Reading others experiences is really useful.
I am really scared of needing op. I have 2 DD's who have no-one to look after them if i go into hospital and my family live in turkey now. DS's are ok.They can stay at their Dads as we have joint residency.

I was naughty and had chips tonight! Hopefully they won't cause a problem. I seem to eat mainly salad or pasta which seems to help. Its just the extra bits i keep snacking on in the evenings which causes the problems! I have got a lot better at not snacking though.

tortoise - try doing healthy eating chips then if you want to scoff .

babyramone - have a good sweet and sour chicken recipe thats dead easy and completely fat free - will dig it out for you and a nice spicy tomato sauce which gave the rest of the family with some pork but i just had it veggie with rice - it was really quite pleasant! will dig that out for you as well. x

Babyramone, you sound like you are having a miserable time, I'm so sorry. I hate these sodding stones, they really get in the way of my pathetic attempt of a social life as I never know when I'm going to be laid up with the wretched things. I've had one attack in nearly 2 weeks which is good for me as I've been having about 3 a week up until now.

Do you think we should keep this thread going as a bit of a support thread for those of us who are trying to eat as low fat as possible and lose a bit of weight ?