Diet after the surgery to remove a gall-bladder

A gall-bladder is a part of your body generating enough bile needed for a duodenum. A diet to follow after the cystectomy (gall-blader removal) places quite a number of strict limitations. And here we invite you to find out what it suggests.

Basic recommendations

Bile ducts contain very little bile – this amount is not enough for normal digestion. It is recommended to divide meals into several parts, lessening amount of food for each of them, to not let this essential substance pool there. Five times a day is considered an ideal schedule. If you do not follow this recommendation the same problem might appear in the bile ducts as was in your gall-bladder. An inflammation also might develop followed by gallstones formation.

You should also bear in mind that after the cystectomy concentration of the bile ferments helping to digest food fats drops. It means that you should exclude lamb and beef fat, lard (meaning actually all saturated fats of animal origin).

Vegetable and milk fats, however, should remain in your diet as they help bile discharge.

After the cystectomy you should steam, boil or simmer your foods.

When you roast your food some substances appear in it that irritate your intestines and make your body produce more gastric juice. If you do not have a gall bladder anymore such active stimulation of the digestion process is rather unwelcome.

Doctors and diet specialists suggest eating according to a strict schedule, keeping meal times always the same. Regular meals schedule will stabilize your digestive system work even in the absence of the gall-bladder.

A diet to keep after the cystectomy

Immediately after the surgery (on the first day) it is recommended to have liquid food such as watery tea, natural juices of non-acidic berries and fruits ( it should be diluted with water 1:1), compote made of dried fruits. You should drink small portions (150-200 ml) 5-6 times a day .

On the second day you can include thick soups and well cooked and grated cereals (semolina, porridge, rice), jelly made of fruits and berries juices.

On the third and fourth day you can make meals more diverse and include skimmed creamy cheese, boiled or steamed lean meat, boiled fish fillet, white bread biscotti or a toast.

Everyday diet to follow after the gall-bladder removal

To prepare first courses you can use watery vegetable broth mixed with some groats (excluding millet). Second courses should be made of lean types of beef or chicken fillet. It is also recommended to have fish twice a week (sea fish is considered especially healthy).

Fermented milk food is also very good for your health. You can eat various meals made of cottage or cream cheese: a pudding, a cheese cake, or a cottage-cheese pancake. You can also add skimmed sour cream into your meals. Do not exclude eggs totally, but you should eat them light-boiled or scrambled. Scrambled eggs cook on steam.

Considering that fats play an active role in the metabolic processes of your body you should not exclude them from your food. It is allowed to eat a small amount of butter or use vegetable oil for cooking.

If you had your gall-bladder removed, it is very good for your health to eat various types of cereal (porridge, buckwheat, rice, barley). You should also eat vegetables and sweet fruits (sour fruits should be avoided). The following food would be very good for your health: carrot, pumpkin, melon, water melon ( gourds stimulate urine production, which helps your body get reed of food breakdown products resulting from the digestion process). You can have preserves, fruit puree, jam, marsh-mallows and natural honey as sweets.

List of forbidden food

If you had your gall-bladder removed you should not eat anything irritating for your stomach mucous. These are:

• spices,
• onion,
• radish,
• garlic,
• turnip,
• mushrooms,
• fish, meat and mushroom broth,
• sour, smoked or spicy food,
• pickled and canned food,
• fatty types of meat, fish and poultry,
• sweets (candies, cakes, sweet carbonated soft drinks and others),
• beans, peas, coarse flour bread and other kinds of food containing a lot of crude vegetable fibers),
• cold plates and food (meat or fish jellies, ice-cream and others).

Some people can experience several unpleasant side effects after the gall-bladder removal: worsening of digestion process, drum belly, diarrhea. If you suffer from the latter it is better to limit or exclude milk food and eat more food containing food fibers ( whole flour bread, brown rice and so on).

Specialist advice: please remember, that you should discuss your diet after the gall-bladder removal with your treating physician. You will need to follow this diet during your whole life. In this case you can expect a long-lasting remission.