Tips for maintaining a healthy gallbladder
Maintaining the health of the gallbladder greatly contributes to maintaining the processes and functions of the digestive system. Learn about the proper nutrition of the gallbladder.
Have you ever thought about the health of your gallbladder? Did you pay attention to it nutritionally? If you don't, you may change your mind after reading the following article!
What is the gallbladder?
The gallbladder is an organ of the digestive system that collects and stores bile from the liver. You may find that this function is secondary or not of great importance, but it is definitely the opposite!
Bile is very important and plays a big role in helping the body digest fats.
Therefore, maintaining the health of the gallbladder is a key factor in maintaining the proper process of digestion and avoiding both gallstones and cancer.
The importance of maintaining a healthy gallbladder
Your diet directly affects the health of your gallbladder due to the role it plays in the digestive process. Gallbladder collecting, storing, and adding bile to food as it passes through the intestines helps break down and digest fats!
Because of this role, you do not want to develop gallstones, which are formed as a result of too high levels of cholesterol or bilirubin.
In the event of these stones, it is possible to block the connection of the gallbladder with the small intestine, which affects the digestion process and the exit of bile outside the gallbladder.
In some cases, it is difficult to get rid of gallstones, so the patient has to undergo surgery to completely remove the gallbladder.
It should be noted here, that removing the gallbladder will not stop the digestion process, as the liver continues to produce the necessary amount of bile juice to complete the digestion process, but of course, patients are advised here to reduce the intake of fat.
Healthy diet for gallbladder
A healthy diet that helps maintain the health of the gallbladder works, in particular, to reduce the effort on this important organ, and this system includes:
- Adequate quantities of vegetables and fruits: to obtain important minerals and vitamins.
- Lean protein: Fat increases the burden on the gallbladder, so it is important to focus on eating lean protein as much as possible, and its most important sources are: chicken, fish, vegetables.
- Fiber: plays an important role in maintaining the health of the digestive system as a whole, as it helps a person feel full for a longer period of time and nourishes the beneficial bacteria in the stomach.
- Beneficial fats: What is meant here is polyunsaturated fat, such as omega-3, which reduces the risk of gallbladder infection with various health problems.
- Coffee: Drinking coffee in moderation helps the gallbladder maintain its proper function and function.
- Calcium: Increasing calcium levels in your diet will support and maintain gallbladder health. Calcium is found in green leafy vegetables such as broccoli.
- Vitamin C: People with high levels of vitamin C have fewer gallbladder problems than others.
Foods you should reduce
The previous part of the article focused on the necessity of eating certain types of foods. In this section, we will focus on those foods that you must reduce to maintain the health and safety of the gallbladder, which are:
- Refined carbohydrates: Although carbohydrates constitute a large part of our food, those refined carbohydrates increase the risk of gallbladder infection with many health problems and disorders.
- Excess fats: Focusing on eating fats in large quantities would stress the gallbladder as a result of the double work of digesting these fats, so it is recommended to reduce their intake.
Food after gallbladder removal
If a person has had their gallbladder removed, the doctor will ask the patient to eat liquid foods for a day or two before returning to their normal diet.
It is worth noting that the liver can manufacture a sufficient amount of bile after gallbladder removal, which is the amount needed to complete the digestion process, but it needs time to adapt to the new conditions.
Therefore, after gallbladder removal, it is important to follow a low-fat diet, and some patients may experience diarrhea and other digestive problems as a result of eating fatty foods.
But if the gallbladder has problems that do not require removal, the doctor will ask the patient to focus on eating low-fat liquid foods to give the gallbladder the necessary time to recover.
Important tips for a healthy gallbladder
There are several procedures that people should follow to maintain the health and safety of the gallbladder, which include:
- Maintaining a normal weight away from obesity, which is one of the risk factors for gallbladder problems.
- Avoid large and rapid weight loss, as this requires additional work from the liver and gallbladder, which may cause them stress and various problems.
- Stay away from the causes of allergies, especially those that cause food allergies.
- Quit Smoking.
- Focus on eating fruits and vegetables in the diet.
Maintaining the health of the gallbladder will help you maintain the good health of the digestive system as a whole and keep you away from the problems associated with it as much as possible, so do not neglect this small organ in your body!