Gallbladder, a small pouch present below the liver stores bile in a concentrated form to release it when there is a large amount of fatty food in the stomach. So gallbladder literally has more work to do when there is a high amount of fatty food in the diet. Paleo diet typically is high in dietary fat and proteins and is very low or near nil in carbohydrates depending on the level of paleo diet you are in. Since bile secretion is necessary for fat digestion, people who have undergone gallbladder removal are often left confused if they can undergo their diet. Let us explore.
After Gallbladder is removed
The bile cannot get stored anywhere and hence the bile secreted from the liver constantly keeps coming to the intestine freely all the time. This might cause irritability in some of them and generic medications are prescribed by the surgeons if people show this kind of syndrome.
What does your surgeon say?
The doctors and surgeons generally recommend having a diet that is high in fiber and low in fat. They also recommend to avoid binge eating and eating large meals at one go. Most of it is true. But paleo is all about having a higher proportion of fat. What can be done? Can I still adopt a paleo lifestyle? The answer is “Yes”.
- Paleo is not necessarily a high-fat diet. You can still have some amount of high fiber diet like vegetables recommended in paleo. Dietary fat as recommended in paleo can be consumed in small portions spread through the entire day.
- Paleo lifestyle is all about removing junk food like sugary processed food, more simple carbohydrate, starchy food, etc., from your food.
- Even if you found the right proportion, do not stack them in one single meal. You need to spread the meal because there is no gallbladder to store the bile and hence the bile gets released constantly into your digestive system. Hence when the bile released directly is used upon for digesting the moderate fat that goes inside as paleo food things should be okay.
- More importantly, begin your experiments with various dietary fat foods in smaller portions. Since everyone’s body is different they might respond to different dietary fat in a different way. If you find that some form of fat like dairy products are not being accepted by the body, just avoid them the next time. In this way, you can adjust your body slowly.
What about the Warrior diet in Paleo?
That is a complete no-no. Warrior diet inside Paleo is all about undergoing intermittent fasting and loading the body with paleo recommended foods that are high in fat and protein after 16 hours. Since this loading is more of feasting or large meal, this can prove detrimental for the body. In short, if you had your gallbladder removed, you should completely abstain from Warrior dieting for life.