Cooking With Gallstones

Cooking With Gallstones – What I Know 

Cooking With Gallstones and How It Started For Me

Before I begin I’m going to put it right out there that I’m no expert on gallstones. I was diagnosed a few days ago and all I know is my doctor said I need to get all my protein from vegetables.

Real quick if you’re not familiar with what gallstones are or what your gallbladder does, it excretes bile. It excretes bile when you eat fatty foods such as animal proteins like a super juicy fatty steak say perhaps a ribeye (yes, already having withdrawals). Or other favorites of mine like fish with a super delicious garlic butter cream caper sauce on top. You get my drift.

So when you eat these high-fat foods your gallbladder excretes the bile which breaks down the fats so you can digest the food. When you have gallstones they block the excretion and it’s incredibly painful.

Humility of Gallstones:

I thought you had to be sixty to have gallstones, not the case. I’m 40 and have a toddler and honestly as I’ve dug deeper into the causes, I fit into so many buckets theres really no telling EXACTLY why I got them, I’m sure my surgeon will be able to help with this. Here are some common causes for Gallstones:

• Pregnancy ( I’ve had a child)
• Being Overweight or Obese (not the skinniest person in the world)
• High-Fat Diet or High-Cholesterol diet low in fiber
• Rapid Weight loss in a short period of time (not my problem)
• Diabetes Mellitus (again, not my story)
• Being Female (guilty)
• Being Native American, or Mexican-American decent (I think I’m Mexican due to how much I love the food, I know I’ve been Mexican in a previous life.
• Being 60 years or older (I’m 40)

My Story with Gallstones

I’m no stranger to pain, I’ve given birth via cesarean (after 36 hours of labor) and I’ve had a fistula surgery (you can look that one up) and it’s right up there with that pain. Doubled over on the ground in a fetal position praying to god the pain stops or somehow you just die, anything to stop it. Not to be completely disgusting but in my case, the only thing that relieved the pain was vomiting. So when you go through a few episodes of that last one being in China for work I had to get to the bottom of it.

Common Known Causes  of Gallstones:

• Severe Abdominal Pain
• Vomiting
• Sweating
• Fever
• Severe Back Pain
• Dehydration – after the vomiting

Often masked as food poisoning – I had a few episodes before I knew that it was not the food poisoning I had initially suspected.

Blood work, X-Ray, various disgusting samples and finally an ultrasound revealed the stones. I’m awaiting an appointment with the surgeon in the next few weeks to see what my options are. If you’re reading this article and you know of a homeopathic method I would love to hear it.

Gallstone Treatment

On one hand having surgery would be good because I know I would never have that pain again, but then I wonder would I end up with some random weird condition where I can’t eat meat anymore or who knows what. I actually love meat, obviously what got me in this position in the first place.

Mitigating Gallstone Pain/Symptoms

I will say the handful of days eating a predominately vegetable-based diet has felt pretty good. I’ve tried a ton of fad diets like Paleo, and no carbs and honestly as I’ve found with many areas of life, going natural is really the best thing you can do for yourself. I had a friend in the same boat as me and after a few days of eating healthy you feel great and think you’re fine and okay and you won’t need surgery. My buddy’s wife, (my best friend) said why don’t you have a cheeseburger to test your theory. So he did and they ended up in the ER that night. I’m not gonna be that guy…lol. As much as I love meat, it’s not worth the pain.

Next Steps for Managing and Eating with Gallstones:

At this point, I’m waiting for the appointment with the surgeon and in the meantime sharing my veggie creations with all of you.

I’m going pescatarian for now and it seems to be working. My doc said best results for mitigating the pain is all vegan, I really want to but I’m still gonna have salad dressing and the occasional piece of fish, I haven’t had an episode yet so I will keep you posted.

Common Home Remedies for Gallstones:

• Eat Vegan
• Reduce or eliminate all animal proteins
• Reduce or eliminate dairy – yes cheese (sucks I know)
• Bland diet
• Apple cider vinegar – I’ve heard you can swallow a shot of this daily to break down the stones – haven’t tried it so let me know if you try it

Foods to Avoid with Gallstones (I’m no expert just what I’ve gathered):

• High-fat foods – ie: fries, chips
• High-fat meats – bacon, sausage, ground beef
• High-fat dairy – milk, cream, sour cream
• Chocolate (seriously sucks)
• Creamy Soups
• Meat Gravies
• Pizza – I’m going to make a veggie based pizza to prove them wrong – stay tuned
• Lessen Peanut Butter Intake – another huge blow for me so check with your doc