Diet taboos for gallbladder stones

Don't eat a lot of high-fat and high-cholesterol foods in a short period of time, don't eat irregularly or overeat for a long time, and don't eat irritating foods that can induce biliary colic - there are no foods that you must not eat, only wrong eating methods and intakes.

I happened to meet a 32-year-old girl when I was working the night shift in the emergency department last week. She stayed at home to watch variety shows over the weekend and ate two bags of crispy salted chicken, which she showed off with iced Coke. Within half an hour of lying down, she felt so painful that she curled up into a ball and was sent over by a friend. After the test, it was found that gallbladder stones were embedded in the neck of the gallbladder. The pain required two antispasmodic injections to relieve the pain. Her previous physical examination revealed a small stone of 0.4cm, and the doctor specifically warned her not to eat oily foods. She felt that she usually had no reaction at all and did not take it seriously at all.

At this point, someone may want to ask, does that mean you can’t even touch eggs? This happens to be a controversial point in the industry: the traditional view of gastroenterology is that patients with symptomatic gallbladder stones should strictly limit high-cholesterol foods such as egg yolks and animal offal, and the daily cholesterol intake should preferably be controlled within 200mg. ； However, clinical follow-up data in recent years show that as long as there is no history of acute biliary colic, patients who eat one whole egg a day have no significant difference in the risk of stone progression compared with those who do not eat egg yolks at all. Among the patients I have followed up for more than three years, there are some who never feel pain after eating a steamed egg every morning, and some who get sick after eating half a piece of fried egg. Ultimately, it is a matter of individual tolerance. There is no need to blacklist eggs just for fear of pain. Try eating a small dose once, and if there is no reaction, there is no need to quit.

And it’s true that not all fat needs to be completely avoided. Many people go on a vegetarian diet after being diagnosed with stones, and do not even dare to add olive oil, which makes them more likely to cause problems. The gallbladder is like a small leather bag that stores bile. If you don't stimulate it with fat at all, it will never be emptied. The bile stored in it will become thicker and thicker, which will accelerate the precipitation and growth of stones. Two years ago, I met a 40-year-old female patient. After a physical examination revealed a small stone of 0.3cm, she immediately stopped eating all meat, eggs and milk. She went on a vegetarian diet for 8 months and had a follow-up examination. The stone had grown to 1.2cm and she also suffered from biliary colic twice. The gain outweighed the gain. Instead, eat some steamed salmon and avocado, and mix a dish with olive oil. A small amount of unsaturated fatty acids can also help regulate bile content and reduce the risk of attacks.

In addition to the well-known "don't eat too much oil", there are also several pitfalls that are easy to step on and many people don't even notice. For example, the sweetened sugar in milk tea, cakes, and fruit tea has nothing to do with stones. In fact, excessive refined sugar will increase the saturation of cholesterol in bile, which will actually make the stones grow bigger. ； There is also alcohol, whether it is liquor, beer or sparkling wine, which will stimulate the gallbladder to contract violently. If there happens to be a small stone blocking the gallbladder duct orifice, the pain will really make people roll on the floor. Some people also experience pain after eating particularly spicy hot pot or tooth-piercing cold drinks. There is no unified standard for this. If you feel uncomfortable after eating it once, just don’t touch it next time. There is no need to try it forcefully.

It is often said on the Internet that stone patients cannot eat foods such as tofu and spinach. In fact, this is also an old misunderstanding. Unless it is a special type of calcium salt stone, for ordinary cholesterol stone patients, drinking a cup of soy milk and eating tofu mixed with green onions every day will have no effect at all. On the contrary, the isoflavones in soybeans are helpful in regulating bile metabolism, so they do not dare to eat anything even if it rains.

To put it bluntly, dietary taboos for gallbladder stones are never a cold list of taboos. Your own body’s reaction is more accurate than any guideline. There is no need to feel a psychological burden if you occasionally get craving for a piece of braised pork. As long as you don’t show off half a plate at a meal, don’t go hungry for three days and suddenly go to the buffet butter hot pot, eat on time every day and don’t always skip breakfast, and do regular abdominal B-ultrasound follow-up every six months, most people can live peacefully with stones for several years without having to live without daring to eat this or touch that.