Thank you! Lacking a GB, what about digestion of beans?

Wow, thanks Telman!

I can see both the value of the gallbladder to proper digestion, and also how it is still possible to consume fatty food, after the gallbladder is removed, without suffering obvious discomfort like gas from poorly digested food.

I don't remember an adjustment period after surgery, but then I avoided fatty foods for awhile so as not to stress the surgical area while it was healing. My surgery occured while I was still in university.

Another question:

What happens in the case of low-fat, high protein vegetable foods, like beans and lentils? Since protein is made of amino acids, then as the stomach reduces the food to chyme, wouldn't such a meal be acidic at first in the stomach? If that is true, then the pancreas, liver and duodenum have to produce bicarbonate to neutralize the chyme before or as it enters the small intestine.

My interest here is twofold. First, Andreas recommends, on the day of the flush, that we eat no fat from any source, including nuts and seeds (which have both protein and fat), but he says it's ok to have steamed rice and adzuki beans. Shouldn't beans and lentils be avoided too, because they activate the liver just when you want it to rest and allow bile to build up? I always assumed that because beans and lentils are low in fat, they would be ok, and the protein would be filling and help us to wait during the fasting period until the ES drinks. This is a minor issue, as I don't recall him saying to avoid protein, just animal-source protein, nuts and seeds. Basically, fat.

My second point, of interest to anyone who has had their gallbladder removed, is that the production of bicarbonate by the liver, duodenum and pancreas in response to an acidic meal might occur even if we substitute beans and lentils for meat, as I'm trying to do more often. This is more work for the pancreas, which becomes worn out over time (in many cases) because of poor digestion due to lacking a gallbladder. My concern is that, having two parents with Type II diabetes and having lost my gallbladder already, I want to support and reduce the digestive burden, and support the pancreas, as much as possible.

I've read that it is common for people who have lost their gallbladders to develop Type II Diabetes later in life, commonly 10 - 20 years later. Diabetes has its own developmental timetable, the most difficult and dangerous being degeneration which occurs in the autonomic nervous system over a period of years. So I want to do whatever I can to avoid developing this condition.

Thank you so much for locating a good picture and writing such a lucid, well-written post.

PC

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