Preventing Gallstones Through Diet

While there is no way to completely stop gallstones from forming there are many things you can do to lower your risk and prevent gallstones from forming. This ailment is the result of excessive buildups of bad cholesterol and excessive bile secretions in the gallbladder. These buildups will begin to harden overtime. The size of stones can vary depending on how long the buildup on a stone lasts. Some can be the size of a grain of sand, while other can be as large as a quarter. Most of the time, the body will naturally pass the smaller stones with hardly any symptoms or none whatsoever.

One the easiest preventive treatment for gallstones is to change your eating habits and diet. The sooner you make the change, the more likely you will reduce your risk. In the process you will also be lowering your risks for other diseases such as high cholesterol, heart disease and high blood pressure.

You should keep a detailed list of all the foods that you eat over the course of a few weeks. Once you have your list you can start to go through it and eliminate the ones that are high risk foods and replace them with other healthy options. Foods that are high in saturated fats and trans fats should be eliminated. These include butter, hard cheeses, whole milk, foods that are deep fried, as well as baked goods like cakes, cookies and pastries.

There are a number of low fat dairy products available as well as soy substitutes. Rather than deep frying your meats, bake or grill them instead. Remove skins from chicken and do not add any breaded coatings, even when baking. You can use herbs, spices, and citrus juices to add flavor instead. Consume fresh fruits and vegetables as these will add fiber to your body and aid digestion. Vegetables should be steamed, grilled or baked. You should not deep fry or boil your vegetables. Boiling leeches out all the vitamins and minerals from the vegetables. You can even eat the vegetables raw.

Exercising on a regular basis to maintain your ideal weight also can help prevent gallstones.