Your diet after gallbladder surgery must be highly monitored due to the potential adverse effects of a wrong diet to your over-all recovery. Diet after gallbladder surgery is a vital part of your recovery process. Some patients had to make big changes on their diet plan to cope with the lack of gall bladder and in most cases, it's the wrong type of diet that causes the removal of this organ in the first place.
During the first few days, it is advisable that you only eat several meals a day instead of eating big meals thrice. It will reduce the body's need for bile. The main goal of your diet after gallbladder surgery is to limit your fat content.
Your diet after gallbladder surgery will have to start with a liquid diet. Since your digestive tract is still healing from surgery, you need to slowly incorporate solid food in your diet to avoid sudden vomiting and nausea. Diet after gallbladder surgery will gradually changed from liquid to solid in a matter of days post op or as tolerated by the patient.
Before discharge, your doctor will give you a list of foods to avoid and intake. The first on the list would be fatty and oily foods. Because the primary function of your gall bladder is to store the bile produced by your liver, it is important to lessen or cease your fat intake. Your bile is needed by the body to absorb and break down fats. Eating fatty and oily foods will just increase the liver's workload to produce bile to digest fats. Supposedly, your gallbladder lessens the workload of your liver but now that its been removed, your liver will have to work alone.
The main diet after gallbladder surgery would be low-fat, low-cholesterol diet.
Foods that cause intestinal gas must also be avoided. Examples of these are radishes, cabbages, turnips, sweet potato, cauliflower and some others. Other than that, patients must maintain a diet that doesn't include food or beverages that may irritate your digestive system. Its important to note this because one of the most common side effects of this surgery is diarrhea. In line with this, you must avoid drinking caffeinated beverages, barley, alcohol and chocolate. High fiber diet may not be advised during the first week after surgery as to avoid triggering diarrhea.
Your digestive system may not recover immediately. In fact, it may take about a few days or weeks before you could fully recover and adjust to your new diet plan. Some patients are having a hard time adjusting to the new diet plan and may need a nutritionist to guide them through it.