I don't know about U ...

 but I definitely  SEE   or at least  STRONGLY  ,like OVERWHELMINGLY  STRONGLY    SUSPECT  a connection   between the folks getting the  side pains and the gall bladder attacks and eating the full fat  cheese snax and ( oh  I HATE to say it  ... pepperoni ) and bacon  and such....yep even blotted on a towel  ....

and id include nutty snax  which are high fat  even in the BEST  of times  in the same category ..  

shall we call them  gall bladder stressing  ?   

Yep  I know I'm about  to be the most unpopular person here for even daring to THINK these  things ...  but this  low carb lifestyle  while it may work for the WAIST  may not be the HEALTHIEST  for the ORGANS  ...

especially as a way of life as opposed to a temporary  diet .    

I will point out that simply  anecdotally  I lost 100  lbs.  My surgeon did NOT  give me actigall . ( which pissed me off )

BUT   I  haven't felt  a SINGLE twinge in my  side so far  ( knock on wood ) . My operation was two years ago.  

Mainly because ( I think)  I don't eat fat  ( largely  ) ( at least at home ).

I also will point out  that  all these TASTES have their fat  free alternatives .  I DO eat pepperoni .   I Do eat ( and relish)  Vegan bacon .  I   LOVE LOVE LOVE fat free cheese , from  vegan  almond milk based peperjack   to  fat free real dairy ricotta  and fatfree fresh mozzarell and eat it almost every day .  

I just hate to see so many  fellow lightweights struggling with pain , operations , mysterious and painful attacks  and persistent acid reflux  which by the way i also do not suffer from... and did all my life pre op...  

anyway just putting it out there .... many  formerly fat people  do not realize its possible to live  and cook with fat free  alternatives AT ALL  ...  and it is  .. 

Umm...I don't think so. http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/who_gets_gallstones_ga llbladder_disease_000010_4.htm

I think it's just from the stress we put on our bodies when we lose weight as fast as we do.

Obesity and Weight Changes

Obesity. Being overweight is a significant risk factor for gallstones. In such cases, the liver over-produces cholesterol, which is delivered into the bile and causes it to become supersaturated.

Weight Cycling. Rapid weight loss or cycling (dieting and then putting weight back on) further increases cholesterol production in the liver, which results in supersaturation and an increased risk for gallstones.

• The risk for gallstones is as high as 12% after 8 -16 weeks of restricted-calorie diets.
• The risk is more than 30% within 12 - 18 months after gastric bypass surgery.

About one-third of gallstone cases in these situations have symptoms. The risk for gallstones is highest in the following dieters:

• Those who lose more than 24% of their body weight
• Those who lose more than 1.5 kg (3.3 lb.) a week
• Those on very low-fat, low-calorie diets

Men are also at increased risk for developing gallstones when their weight fluctuates. The risk increases proportionately with dramatic weight changes as well as with frequent weight cycling.

Bariatric Surgery. Patients who have either Roux-en-Y or laparoscopic banding bariatric surgery are at increased risk for gallstones. For this reason, many centers request that patients undergo cholecystectomy before their bariatric procedure. However, doctors are now questioning this practice.
 

My gall bladder issues which led to it's removal all started after losing 60lbs with WW back in the 80's.  Back then, WW was a classically balanced diet where you checked off you veggies, dairy, protein, etc.and didn't lean in any directions (low fat, low carb, whatever).

I think it is well proven that weightloss period causes gall bladder issues.

Then explain to me how the last dozen or so people I know who have been diagnosed with gallbladder issues eat LOW FAT.

WebMD

About a million new cases of gallstones are diagnosed in the U.S. each year. For reasons that are still unclear, women are two times more likely than men to be afflicted. Native Americans have the highest rates of gallstones in the United States because they have a genetic disposition to secrete high levels of cholesterol in bile (a contributing factor to gallstones.) Mexican-Americans also have high rates of gallstones.

Gallstones are also more common in people over the age of 60, in those who are obese or have lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time, in those who have diabetes, and in women who have had multiple pregnancies and who take hormone replacement therapy or birth control pills.

Chief among the ingredients of bile are cholesterol and bile acids. Normally, the concentration of bile acids is high enough to break down the cholesterol in the mixture and keep it in liquid form. However, a diet high in fat can tip this delicate balance, causing the liver to produce more cholesterol than the bile acids are able to handle. As a result, some of this excess cholesterol begins to solidify into crystals, which we call gallstones. About 80% of all gallstones are called cholesterol stones and are created this way. The remaining 20% consist of calcium mixed with the bile pigment bilirubin and are called pigment stones.

Gallstones can form even in people who eat properly. And as researchers have found, a diet extremely low in fat can also contribute to gallstone formation: With little fatty food to digest, the gallbladder is called into play less frequently than usual, so the cholesterol has more time to solidify. Other factors that can reduce activity in the gallbladder, possibly leading to gallstone formation, include cirrhosis, the use of birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy, and pregnancy.

Family history, diabetes, sudden weight loss, and cholesterol drugs, and older age can also increase risk for gallstones.

Bolding is mine.

Liz

 

well I would argue that low fat is a very relative term and most people who think they are eating "low fat " or moderately nutriously are in fact eating the normal American " high fat " diet ( read the " nurses diet " as a prime example ' ....

just as a technicality - 2% milk which is "lowfat " has I think like 90% of its calories coming from fat while 4% full fat milk has like 97 % or something .... NOT that much of a difference ...

now I really dont know these statistics and it might be 87 % and 97 % but whatever it is is very SIMILAR . When U get into fat free is when it really CHANGES nutritional profile wise ...


my Grandmother suffered from recurring gallstones and she ate fatback and full fat cheese and salami every night on bread . With a slice of onion.

My landlord suffered from recurring gallstones and he used to eat ten pound bricks of cheese over the course of a week .

Look I could be TOTALLY wrong . But I have YET to see a gardening person who eats their produce and is semi vegetarian and eats (really ) lowfat get gallstones .( or gout - or get frail , another side effect of this high protein high fat fad )

And what else gets released when people lose massive amount s of weight but massive amounts of FAT into the bloodstream ?

I don't KNOW i just strongly suspect a connection ... my common sense tells me there is a link ...

As far as there being twice as many gallbladder cases in women .. that doesnt surprise me .. our smaller bodies are much more vulnerable to damage from alcohol , cigarettes and fat ( in the form of strokes and heart disease ) . We're fragile little creatures!

If it were not for this surgery and the pre op sonogram I never would've known I had gallstones (they will be removed w/surgery). I was a crash/yo-yo dieting fool and I suspect my dieting some years ago lead to the stones developing.

Women do way more dieting than men do so no I am not surprised about the higher rate of stones in women. We also are prone to the stones developing after childbirth when the pregnancy weight comes off quickly (that never happened for me).

It would be interesting to see the rates of gallstones in countries where the diets are lower in fats.

This was the best I could do.
http://www.cureresearch.com/g/gallstones/stats-country_printer.htm

The problem with something like this is many countries do not have the same access to health care and may actually have higher rates than reported.

Liz

these statistics are actually pretty alarming .... the US has by FAR EXPONENTIALLY the highest rate of gallstones anywhere in the world ... even beating such traditionally high fat eating countries like Sweden , Great Britain , Canada .. by a MILE ... ( or Ten Miles )


can U say SCARY ?

Maybe we have the highest rates cause we have the best system for reporting these issues and are far BIGGER in population than the other countries like Sweden GB, Canada???

Gallbladder disease hits the Pima Indian and Mexican American segment far harder than any other segment.

And the US may also have the HIGHEST rates for treating cholesterol with medication and the highest rate of birth control use or HRT treatments. Both are known factors for contributing to gallbladder disease. We also do more WLS than any other country.

It's like the obesity statistics. According to percent, Mississippi has more obese people than any other state but if you break it down by population, CA wins (or loses) that race because it's population is bigger (2010 census)

Mississippi has a 34.4% obesity rate, California has a 24.8%.
However, Mississippi has 2,967,297 people. 34.4% of that is 1,020,750 are obese.
California has 37,253,956 people. 24.8% of that is 9,238,981 are obese...
So which state is actually the fattest? One where just over one million are or one where over nine million are? IF you go by just percentage,, then Mississippi is but by actual number, California "wins" hands down.

So while the statistic are high, consider the reporting of them and all factors,

You NEED fat to function...and some of us need more than others now. DS'ers ONLY absorb 20% of the fat they ingest. And we don't function properly on a low fat diet.

Liz

I started 2009 eating low carb.  Then I went back to WW where everything was cardboard/low fat.  There wasn't a speck of fat on anything.  Drank nonfat organic soy milk.  Low fat cheese if I ate any cheese at all.  0 fat fage etc etc etc.....    It was after switching to low fat that I started getting gall bladder mini attacks.  My GB came out in 11/2009.  I was actually grateful because if I hadn't gone to the doc in October 2009, she never would have recommended WLS and I wouldn't have started the journey to orientation in 11/2009 after my GB came out.