Women who eat more protein from plants have healthier gallbladders

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 26 Jul 2004 - 15:00 PDT

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If you are a woman and get most of your protein from plants (vegetables) you are significantly less likely to need to have your gallbladder taken out. Gallbladders are usually removed because of gallstones.

Dr. Chung-Jyi Tsai, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA, said 'In animals, vegetable protein can inhibit gallstone formation.'

Only recently have scientists looked at the impact vegetable dietary protein can have on the human gallbladder.

You can read about this new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

In this study, scientists looked at the records of 120,000 women who had taken part in the Nurses' Health Study. During a 20-year period, 7831 women had their gallbladders removed (cholecystectomy).

The researchers found that the more dietary vegetable protein a woman consumed as a percentage of her total protein intake the lower her chances were of needing to have a cholecystectomy. The difference was quite significant.

Sources of vegetable protein

-- soybean products

-- vegetable protein

-- beans and rice

-- whole wheat or artichoke pastas

-- whole grain breads and cereals

-- brown rice, beans

-- legumes

-- dark green leafy vegetables

-- sprouts

-- seeds

-- nuts

(Qourn if a fungus)