Meal Plan After Gallbladder Removal

Hello. My name is Chelsea, and I do not have a gallbladder.

There are tons of resources online about what to eat after your gallbladder is removed, but the information is often vague, and none of them provided a comprehensive how-to guide. So, I decided to create one! This article includes all the things that I wish I knew after my gallbladder was removed. Most of these tips are things that I still do today. I hope this comprehensive guide helps you on your own path to a healthy lifestyle. I also created a customized meal plan for those without a gallbladder, including grocery lists, recipe suggestions and more.

Before we dive in, it is important to mention that I am not a doctor. I achieved success by following a customized diet, and I am simply sharing what worked for me. However, this may not work for everyone. It is important that I point out the following:

I make no guarantees or assurances that others will achieve the same results and I did. I am not a medical or nutritional professional. All content on Modern Yum is for informational purposes only. The information provided on this site should not be substituted for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. I cannot guarantee that the information provided reflects the most up-to-date medical research. Please consult with your doctor before starting any new diet or exercise program.

Disclaimer: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links. I only link to products and retailers that I have used personally and recommend.

You can view my full terms and conditions here. Now that that is out of the way, let's dive in.

Eating Without A Gallbladder: Where To Start

If you're just getting started, it can be hard to know where to start and what to do. There's a lot of information out there, but a lot of it is unhelpful and overly complicated. Here is a list of basic things you should start doing right away.

Give Yourself Time

Incorporating moderate amounts of healthy fats into your diet is important, but it will take your liver some time to learn to produce bile on-demand. I recommend you wait at least 4 months after surgery before incorporating too much fat back into your diet. Give your liver time to adjust.

• Right after surgery you should eat a low-fat diet. Your body is recovering from surgery, so eat foods that are easy to digest. During this period, chicken bone-broth soup is your best friend.
• After about a month, start adding small amounts (about one teaspoon) of healthy fats here and there.
• After another month or so, if you want, you can try drizzling a tablespoon of olive oil on a salad or butter on your veggies.
• Once it's been several months since your surgery, you should be familiar with what your body can handle. Only YOU know when the time is right to incorporate healthy fats into your diet.

Note: my suggestions above do NOT overrule anything your doctor tells you. These are general guidelines, but each situation is different so always listen to your doctor.

Do I Have To Avoid Fat?

Yes and no. As my physician told me, “About half of people without a gallbladder can digest fat just fine, and the other half have problems." Right after surgery you should avoid fats, but after an adjustment period you should incorporate small amounts of healthy fats back into your diet. Even if you are considered the “other half with problems”, you can, and should, still be consuming some healthy fats. You just have to be careful, eat small portions, and pay attention to your body so that you don't overdo it. Healthy fats are essential to your bodily function. Healthy fats, such as avocado oil and olive oil, are necessary for brain function, hormone regulation, nutrition absorption, and many other essential bodily functions. You cannot simply exclude fats from your diet completely. Regardless of which category you fall under, you should find a way to consume at least a small amount of healthy fats each day.

You Can Still Eat And Digest Fat

Bile is what helps you digest fat. The liver produces the bile, and the gallbladder stores it. Think of your liver as the factory and the gallbladder as the storage unit. Your liver can still produce bile, it just doesn't have a storage unit to keep it in. So the liver needs to learn to make bile on-demand, and it sends it straight to the small intestine. This means that if you eat a massive meal of fatty foods, your liver won't be able to produce enough bile in the moment and you'll end up with a stomachache (and an over-worked liver). On the other hand, if you eat a small amount of fat your liver will gladly produce some bile to help digest it, and you'll be A-OK. And if you eat another small meal a couple hours later, no problem. You can still digest fat, you just can't eat a ton of it all at the same time.

Smaller Meals, More Often

Eat multiple small meals throughout the day. Your goal should be to eat like a hobbit: breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper. Roughly twice the number of meals as "normal" people. Snacking throughout the day is something to be proud of. Tapas are your best friend. A 3-course dinner party that lasts several hours? Perfect. Eating a series of appetizer-sized plates prevents you from having one large meal. Just make sure your meals/snacks are healthy. Having 10 snacks a day of highly-processed foods will not do you any favors.

"OMG I'm STARVING" is your worst nightmare. Don't let yourself get to that point. If it does happen, eat a snack or appetizer before digging into a meal.

This will help with two aspects of your diet: don’t eat too many carbs in one sitting (spike your blood sugar) and don’t eat too much fat in one sitting (overwhelm your liver without a gallbladder). Sitting down to one massive meal is likely to cause a spike in either direction (or both), so spreading out your meals into smaller portions throughout the day is safer.

Do NOT force yourself to finish your plate. Like many, I grew up on the notion that I had to finish my plate. So, I had to re-train my brain not to think this way. In order to re-train myself, I made a rule that no matter what, I had to leave at least one bite on the plate. Eventually I got used to it and leaving that last bite didn't cause a panic of "must finish!" in the back of my mind. Nowadays, I often make myself a plate, eat most of it, but leave a few bites on the plate. I put the rest of it in the fridge and then finish it off an hour or two later. My husband sometimes teases me for leaving two bites of something on a plate, but it's important to stop yourself, even if you only have a couple bites left. You don't have to waste it, just consider it a snack for later.

Keep A Food Journal

The goal is to find a pattern between what you are eating and what symptoms you get. For example, I noticed that I sometimes get a headache if I eat too much peanut butter, and that 24-48 hours after eating pork I'll get a terrible upset stomach. Without a journal, it can be difficult to recognize patters when symptoms don't show up until 1-2 days later.

The Heavier You Are, The Harder It Will Be

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s true. This is a major point that most other resources don't mention, yet it’s a key factor for setting you up for success instead of failure. As you can see from the chart below, the heavier you are, the more calories you tend to eat on a daily basis. That makes sense: someone who is 150 pounds will eat less total food, and have a diet with less total calories, than someone who is 300 pounds. Here’s where it gets tricky: if you are eating more calories in general, then you will also be eating more fat, and if you’re eating more fat, your liver must work harder to digest that fat.

In the example below, a person consuming 2,375 calories per day on a moderate-fat diet will need to digest about 106g of fat, whereas someone consuming 1,622 calories per day will only have to digest 72g of fat. That's a difference of 34g of fat per day, which may be the difference between tummy problems and no tummy problems. All the dandelion tea in the world isn’t going to compensate for having to digest an additional 34g of fat per day.

Does that mean that heavier people cannot follow a healthy diet or consume fats? No. It just means that the heavier you are, the more important it is that you listen to your body and learn your limits. You may have to stick to a low-fat diet and get the majority of your calories elsewhere (protein and carbs). Each body is different and has different limits. If you are having trouble digesting fats, you may also consider taking ox bile supplements until you can get your weight down. Then, you can try to slowly transition off the supplements if your body allows.

A Standard Low-Carb Moderate-Fat (LCMF) Diet

Macros	Weight: 150 lbs	Weight: 300 lbs
	Calories: 1,622	Calories: 2,375
Net Carbs: 20%	Net Carbs: 81g	Net Carbs: 119g
Protein: 40%	Protein: 162g	Protein: 238g
Fat: 40%	Fat: 72g	Fat: 106g

It's Not Always A Gallbladder Problem

After my gallbladder was removed, I blamed every single tummy-ache on my non-existent gallbladder. I would think to myself "I must have eaten too much fat." That was clearly not the case, since I was eating an extremely low-fat diet at the time, but hindsight is 20-20. There are other reasons why your belly might be angry with you, so don't let your gallbladder problems take the blame for everything.

There was a span of about a year and a half where I had particularly bad stomachaches and bloating. Like, really bad. I went to the G.I. doctor multiple times, was prescribed various medications, but nothing helped. Then, one day the doctor suggested I try probiotics. Lo and behold! It was like a switch turned off and after only a few days my stomachache completely disappeared. After over a year of suffering, all I needed was some probiotics. So, learn from my mistake and do not assume that every upset stomach is caused by your non-existent gallbladder. In this case, it was a round of antibiotics I had taken a year prior that was the culprit.

How's Your Poo?

Let's talk about poop! If you don’t have a gallbladder, then it's important to pay attention to your poo. Bile is what makes your poop brown, so the color of your poo is a good indicator of how your tummy is doing. Bile starts out as a yellowish-greenish color and then turns brown during digestion. If your poop is an unusual color, it's important to know what's causing it. Besides a stomachache, diarrhea and bloating, your poop color is a good way to tell if you're eating too much fat and/or not producing enough bile. Here's a poop-color guideline:

• Pale / white / chalky - this is a sign of not enough bile. Though some medications may also cause this (did you take any anti-diarrhea medicine lately?), I typically view this as a sign that I ate too much fat for my liver to handle. If it still persists after reducing your fat intake, see a doctor.
• Yellow / greasy / super stinky - yellow stool could be from something you ate, but it could also be a sign of too much fat. Especially if it's greasy / fatty / super smelly (even more than usual), you are either not producing enough bile, or you may have an absorption problem (common with celiac disease). If it persists, you should see a doctor.
• Orange - probably from eating carrots or other foods with beta-carotene, but it could also indicate that you aren't getting enough bile. If it persists, you should see a doctor.
• Green - probably from those green veggies you ate. If it accompanies diarrhea, it's probably because you have plenty of bile (yay!) but it went through your system so fast that it didn't have time to turn brown. If it persists, you should see a doctor.
• Red or black - Pepto-Bismol, iron and other supplements may turn your stool black. Red food coloring, cranberries, beets, tomatoes or other very-red foods may turn your stool red. However, red or black stool might also indicate bleeding in the digestive tract. If it persists, you should see a doctor.

As a general rule: unusual poop color in the short-term is ok and probably due to something you ate, but long-term might indicate an issue and you should see a doctor.

Finding A Balanced Diet

Let's use myself as a case study. I had a cholecystectomy (surgery to remove the gallbladder) when I was 24 years old. I had eaten a low-fat diet for years, and the bile in my gallbladder had turned from a liquid into, as my doctor called it, "sludge." After multiple trips to the hospital, I became one out of half a million people that have their gallbladders removed every year.

After the surgery, my doctor told me to avoid eating fats, so I took my already low-fat diet to the extreme. And I mean EXTREME. I had completely accepted the fact that I could not eat any fat for the rest of my life. I considered it to be a blessing-in-disguise, forcing me to eat "healthy." But despite the fact that I was constantly eating steamed broccoli and chicken breast, I was gaining weight. Slowly but surely, year after year, the trend was always up. 10 years later, I realized that it just wasn't working for me, and that something needed to change. I realized that the low-fat diet was a high-carb diet, and it wasn’t a good long-term solution for my body.

For several years I went in the completely opposite direction and managed to successfully follow a keto diet. Doing keto without a gallbladder has its challenges. I had had to make changes and adjustments, but I found a way to make it work. In the long-run, however, I settled on something in-between: a moderate-carb, moderate-fat Mediterranean Diet, which is often recommended by doctors and nutritionists as a balanced diet with minimal processed foods. For someone without a gallbladder, this seems to be a healthy long-term solution that fits the needs of my body. It’s also flexible, so you can always adjust the fat intake and customize the diet as needed to ensure that your tummy stays happy. Because I do not have a gallbladder, I’ve had to tweak the standard Mediterranean Diet, pay close attention to my body, and learn (mostly by trial and error) how to customize the diet to fit my needs.

For specific information about how to follow a Keto Diet Without a Gallbladder, click here. For more information about the Mediterranean Diet (and helpful tips for ANY diet) keep reading.

Choose A Diet That Works For You

A customized Mediterranean Diet is what I have found works best for me. You may prefer something different, and that's fine. You know your body best. Do what works best for you. Or don't "choose" a diet at all, and just eat how you normally do and pay attention to your fat intake. The meal plan I created follows the Mediterranean Diet, but it's very flexible and customizable, so you can always use it as a basic setup and then add whatever foods you prefer.

The Mediterranean Diet

There is an abundance of information online about what the Mediterranean Diet is, so I won’t go into too much detail here. There are different definitions of “Mediterranean Diet” anyways, since it’s a large region of Europe covering many countries. The basic elements of a standard Mediterranean Diet are listed below; however, you can find more detailed information elsewhere on the internet.

The Basics

• Incorporate lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes and whole grains.
• Incorporate healthy fats, especially extra virgin olive oil and avocados.
• Incorporate seafood, eggs, dairy and poultry. In reality, they eat a lot of pork in the Mediterranean, but most dieticians recommend keeping red meat to a minimum, so we’ll heed that advice.
• Avoid processed foods, added sugars, refined oils, refined grains and processed meat. Again, we will kindly ignore the fact that white bread (refined grain) and prosciutto (processed meat) are staple foods across the Mediterranean and avoid them for the sake of the diet.

Ignore the "Food Police"

There are lots of blogs, forums and social media groups with information about nutrition, diets and ways to eat healthy. That's great! But very few of them discuss doing those diets without a gallbladder. Most authors/commentators have their gallbladders and don't have the same issues/limitations that we do. So do your research, join a group, learn about different diets... but take everything with a grain of salt. You are allowed to tweak any diet any way you see fit to accommodate your body’s needs.

Personally, I try to avoid gluten, chemical sweeteners, etc. in my diet. But even as I write this, my tummy is not OK today and I am munching on a low-carb wrap (containing gluten) as I type because it settles my stomach and makes me feel better. It's not the end of the world. Give yourself a break.

So, just to be clear: always remember that information about any diet is usually NOT customized for people without a gallbladder. You may have to make some adjustments, and that's ok. You're not cheating, you're customizing.

What Do I Eat?

Generally speaking, not having a gallbladder shouldn’t affect most aspects of your diet (unless you are doing a high-fat diet like keto). Not having a gallbladder means that you will have to be careful with your fat intake. This includes things like butter and olive oil, but also any other foods that include natural fats. The yolk of an egg, the skin and fat in the meat, the amount of fat in cheese―all these need to be considered. You can absolutely digest small to moderate amounts of fat; you just can’t overdo it.

Tips and Tricks to Help You Digest Properly

It is possible to eat some healthy fats without a gallbladder, but there are things you can do to help that process. You may find that some of these tips work better than others for you, as every body is different. I have found that some of these make little difference, while others make a huge difference. Over time you'll learn what works for you and what doesn't. In the beginning, I highly recommend that you keep a food journal.

Start Slow

Most people start a new diet cold-turkey, but when I started to change my diet from low-fat (after surgery) to moderate-fat (long-term balanced diet), I gave myself a ramp up period of a few weeks. When I switched to a more balanced diet, I needed to start adding some small amounts of fat to see if my body could handle it. During that time, two weeks in my case, I slowly started to increase my fat intake. I had no idea how much fat my body could handle. Absolutely no idea. Even adding just a small drizzle of oil to my plate seemed like it would set off some hidden alarm bell somewhere. But nothing happened, and I was shocked to learn that I was actually digesting the fat fairly well. During this time, I did not take supplements like ox-bile, because I wanted to see what my body could handle on its own. I also did NOT count calories or aim for certain nutritional goals. My total calories were probably quite high during those two weeks. I have no idea. I didn't count. My only goal was to slowly increase my fat intake, day by day, to see if I would do ok. Keep it simple, and set one goal at a time.

I learned by trial and error which fats I could digest easier and which foods gave me more trouble. For me, it took a few weeks; for you it might take longer. Just make sure you go slow and listen to your body. A new diet will never work if you are so strict that you make yourself sick.

Avoid Foods That Are Hard To Digest

This may seem obvious, but it's worth saying: avoid foods that are hard to digest. This includes red meat, dairy and certain grains.

Gallbladder issues are sometimes caused by food intolerances, and just because you got rid of your gallbladder doesn't mean that the food intolerance disappeared. It will still wreak havoc on your system. Food intolerances can be tricky, because the effects aren't as obvious or immediate as a food allergy. I'll be the first to admit that I eat too much dairy. But it's not a good long-term solution if you want to avoid further digestive issues down the road. I don’t necessarily cut these out of my diet completely, I’m just mindful not to eat too much of them. For example, if I have yogurt for breakfast, I don’t include cheese in my meals later in the day. Everything in moderation.

Soluble Fiber

When you eat soluble fiber along with fats, the fiber turns into a gel and slows down the digestive process. This is important because it gives your liver more time to produce the bile. Bonus: soluble fiber also helps prevent constipation, lower your cholesterol, maintain lower blood glucose levels and promote healthy gut bacteria. You should try to include some type of soluble fiber with every meal.

With fruits and vegetables, usually (but not always) the outside peel is mostly insoluble fiber and the softer inside is mostly soluble fiber. So, plants where you only eat the inside, like bananas, pumpkin, edamame, and sunflower seeds, are typically great choices for soluble fiber. For other plants where you eat the skin, like apples and eggplants, keep in mind that the skin will be mostly insoluble fiber and the inside is where the soluble fiber lies. Insoluble fiber is important too, so don’t feel like you need to get rid of it or stop eating it. Insoluble fiber provides bulk and is also important to digestion. However, it can cause flare-ups for people with IBS when eaten in excess, so it’s something to monitor and pay attention to.

Here is a list of foods that are high in soluble fiber:

• Beans
• Sweet potato
• Oats
• Apples
• Pears
• Citrus fruit
• Barley
• Corn
• Lentils
• Brussels sprouts
• Asparagus
• Avocado
• Broccoli
• Turnips
• Carrots
• Flax seeds
• Chia seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Nuts
• Lupini beans
• Psyllium - this is a unique ingredient that you may not have used before. It's fairly common in low-carb baking and can be used to thicken soups and stews in lieu of flour. I recommend getting some psyllium powder and adding a little to any soup, stew or sauce that you make. It's also a natural laxative, so don't go overboard with it either.
• Raspberries
• Spinach
• Soybeans (including edamame)
• Pumpkin and squash
• Green peas
• Inulin powder (add to smoothies and drinks)
• Acacia Senegal powder (add to smoothies and drinks)

Help A Liver Out!

Some foods naturally stimulate bile production in the liver. Awesome! Most of these are considered "bitters" (yes, the same thing that's in your cocktail). To get the full effect, make sure you taste them and chew slowly, as that will send signals to the liver and give it a head start. You get bonus points for eating these as an appetizer, ahead of the main meal. I like to munch on some cucumber or sip tumeric/ginger tea while I'm getting the main meal together. Here is a list of foods that naturally stimulate bile production:

• Artichokes
• Arugula
• Dandelion root (usually drank as a tea)
• Mint, which can be eaten with meals, drank as a tea or infused in water
• Parsley
• Radish
• Endive
• Radicchio lettuce
• Chicory
• Cilantro
• Celery
• Cucumber
• Tumeric, which can be sprinkled into eggs, smoothies, tea, oatmeal, etc.
• Ginger, which can be eaten with meals, drank as a tea or infused in water (ginger also helps ease an upset stomach; lemon ginger tea is my go-to when my belly hurts)
• St. Mary's thistle / milk thistle (usually drank as a tea)
• Green tea
• Sauerkraut
• Lemon/Lime
• Dark chocolate
• Kale
• Coffee
• Dill
• Sesame seeds
• Mustard

You can take a "liver tonic/cleanse" supplement in pill form to help as well. They should contain some of the above ingredients (usually dandelion, milk thistle and globe artichoke). This is good for an every-once-in-a-while help to your liver, but they are generally not meant for long-term use.

Note: if you have stomach ulcers, you should talk to your doctor about your choice of bitters, as some will irritate ulcers more than others.

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

Add apple cider vinegar (ACV) to your meals when possible. The malic acid in ACV thins bile, which makes it easier for the bile to move around the intestinal dance floor and boogie with the fats. ACV can also help with nutrient absorption. Overall, it's a great addition to you diet. Any time a recipe calls for vinegar, use ACV. You could also use it on salads along with olive oil. If you're up for it, mix together the following ingredients, keep it in the fridge, then take a swig before or during each meal (through a straw is better, as the acid can weaken your tooth enamel if you drink it on a regular basis). It's best to buy ACV raw, unfiltered, and with “mother” included.

• 2 tablespoon ACV
• 12oz water or iced tea
• 3-4 drops of stevia or monk fruit
• Shake of salt (Pink Himalayan recommended)
• Optional: Lemon juice, cinnamon and/or cayenne

MCT Oil

MCT oil does not require bile to digest! I repeat, MCT oil does NOT require bile to digest. Due to its unique structure, MCT oil gets absorbed right away and your body does not need to produce bile to digest it. But MCT can be tricky. Here are some pointers:

• MCT = Medium Chain Triglycerides (most other fats are "long chain," which are more complex and harder to break down)
• For some people, regardless of if they have a gallbladder or not, MCT oil gives them an upset stomach. So, be careful not to overdo it and start with a small amount and increase over time. The first time you use MCT oil, start with a teaspoon and see how you do.
• No more than 50% of your fats should come from MCT. I know it's tempting, but don't overdo it. I try to use no more than one tablespoon per meal, once per day (maximum twice per day). Eating too much of it can cause a fatty liver.
• MCT oil gives you quick energy. It is absorbed immediately, without the need for bile to break it down. This quick energy can be a good thing, especially as a pre-workout meal/snack. But on the other hand, it does not provide the long-lasting energy and fullness of most fats. I personally don't feel as full when eating MCTs, which can lead to overeating.
• MCT is natually found in several types of foods. You do not need to buy pure MCT oil if you cook with coconut oil on a regular basis.
  • Coconut oil: 55% MCT
  • Palm kernel oil: 54% MCT
  • Whole milk: 9% MCT
  • Butter: 8% MCT
  • Other coconut products (coconut milk, coconut meat, etc.) may contain MCT
  • Other dairy products (cheese, yogurt, etc.) may contain small amounts of MCT
• MCT has a low smoking point, so you should not cook with it. Here are some ways to incorporate MCT o
  • Drizzle it on salads
  • Add it to smoothies
  • Make bulletproof coffee (or tea, latte, etc.)
  • Add it to bone broth or soup before eating
  • Drizzle it on top of veggies
  • Add it to yogurt, cottage cheese or oatmeal (keto version)
  • Mix it with sauces and dips

Fasting Without A Gallbladder

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a growing trend, so I’d like to address it. Is it possible to fast without a gallbladder? Yes, but you need to be careful. It’s not about whether or not you can fast. Because the answer to that is "yes, you can." Your body can handle not eating for a while, and might actually benefit from taking a break from all that digesting. The tricky part is not the time spent fasting; it's the time spent eating. There are a few factors you need to consider:

1. When you break the fast, can you control yourself enough to eat a small portion? If you break your fast by diving into a pile of food, you might make yourself sick.
2. The most common way to do IF is on a 16:8 schedule: don't eat for 16 hours, then eat for 8 hours. This is doable. I know because I frequently do it myself. However, I do not recommend shortening the eating window to less than 8 hours.
3. What type of fasting are you doing? There are two types:
   • Nothing except water. This is not impossible, but it's not easy either.
   • No carbs whatsoever. This is the more common form of IF, and the goal of this type of fast is to prevent any insulin spikes, even in the slightest. This type of fast is much more doable since you can spread out your fat intake throughout the day, even during the fasting hours. So, for example, you could sip on some bulletproof coffee or bulletproof bone broth without breaking your fast.
4. In the end, the most important thing is to listen to your body. If you're hungry: eat. If you're not hungry: don't eat. You might try it and do well with IF. Great. Or you might find that you need to spread out your meals throughout the whole day, and that's fine too. Whatever works for you.

Whatever you do, don't force yourself to fast if it shortens your eating window too much. It's not worth getting sick over.

Ox-Bile Supplements

Some people swear by this and some people (I'm in this camp) never use them. If you are just starting out without a gallbladder, it can be tempting to take a supplement that helps you digest fat. So why am I against it? Because I think it's preferable to let your body learn how to digest fat on its own, and for you to know your body’s natural limits and stick to those limits when possible. I prefer not to rely on supplements.

Now, that being said, if you have tried to eat small portions of healthy fat (one teaspoon per meal) and simply cannot get your body to digest it, then this might be an alternative for you to try. Just make sure that you've given your body a fair shot first, before taking the ox-bile supplements on a regular basis.

I should also mention that there is one condition, called “Biliary Sludge”, in which ox-bile salts can be used to help. In this case, your liver is pumping out very thick "sludge" bile and the supplement can help. Note that your liver producing sludge is different from your gallbladder containing sludge. Unless your doctor confirms that you have this condition, my recommendation is to avoid the supplements and allow your body to adjust to the diet naturally.

Other Supplements

I recommend speaking to your doctor about this. During an annual physical exam they can test to see if you are deficient in any vitamins or minerals.

• Vitamin D3: if your liver is not working at 100% then you might be low on vitamin D, even if you spend time in the sun. Your doctor can test your vitamin D levels to check.
• As mentioned above, a liver tonic/cleanse supplement can help your liver stay strong.
• Probiotics: regardless of whether you have a gallbladder or not, probiotics are vital to maintaining digestive health.
• Digestive Enzymes: if your gallbladder deteriorated because of long-term digestive issues, then those underlying issues might still be there. Talk to your doctor about this to see if taking digestive enzymes might help.

Step-by-Step Guide and Meal Plan

This is a custom meal plan for anyone who does not have a gallbladder and wants to follow a healthy, well-balanced diet. Included in this guide are TWO different meal plans to choose from: a Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet and a Low-Fat Mediterranean Diet. You'll have both plans and will be able to follow whichever one best fits your needs. Plus, get grocery lists, recipe suggestions, and a tons of information and tips to get you started on the right track.

I hope you've found this information helpful, and I wish you luck in your goals toward health!