Your gallbladder needs about 10 grams of fat in one sitting to empty properly, and a low-fat diet that never gives it that is how a person ends up on a surgeon's list. The gallbladder is a small bag under the liver that stores bile, and bile is how you digest fat. When fat reaches the gut, a hormone called CCK tells the bag to squeeze, and it empties into the intestine. It only does the job properly when there is enough fat to justify it, and the threshold researchers work to is around 10 grams in a meal. Below that, the bag barely moves. The bile sits there and thickens, and the cholesterol in it starts to crystallise the way anything does in still water. Crystals become sludge, and sludge becomes stones. In 1996 a group of dieters were put on a 520-calorie plan with under 2 grams of fat a day, and another group on 900 calories with 30 grams, including one 10-gram meal put there for no reason except to make the gallbladder empty. Four of the six on the fat-free plan grew gallstones. None of the seven on the fatty plan did, and the trial was stopped early on ethical grounds. Women grow gallstones at about twice the rate men do, and they are also the most likely to have spent twenty years on skimmed milk, egg-white omelettes and chicken breast. So give it the signal every day, in one meal with real fat in it. Ten grams is two whole eggs, a thick slice of cheddar, or a thumb of butter on the steak. A ribeye with the cap on gives it four or five times that, and the bag empties clean. If yours is still in there, it is asking to be used. Use it.

— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) November 8, 2026

Your gallbladder needs about 10 grams of fat in one sitting to empty properly, and a low-fat diet that never gives it that is how a person ends up on a surgeon's list. The gallbladder is a small bag under the liver that stores bile, and bile is how you digest fat. When fat reaches the gut, a hormone called CCK tells the bag to squeeze, and it empties into the intestine. It only does the job properly when there is enough fat to justify it, and the threshold researchers work to is around 10 grams in a meal. Below that, the bag barely moves. The bile sits there and thickens, and the cholesterol in it starts to crystallise the way anything does in still water. Crystals become sludge, and sludge becomes stones. In 1996 a group of dieters were put on a 520-calorie plan with under 2 grams of fat a day, and another group on 900 calories with 30 grams, including one 10-gram meal put there for no reason except to make the gallbladder empty. Four of the six on the fat-free plan grew gallstones. None of the seven on the fatty plan did, and the trial was stopped early on ethical grounds. Women grow gallstones at about twice the rate men do, and they are also the most likely to have spent twenty years on skimmed milk, egg-white omelettes and chicken breast. So give it the signal every day, in one meal with real fat in it. Ten grams is two whole eggs, a thick slice of cheddar, or a thumb of butter on the steak. A ribeye with the cap on gives it four or five times that, and the bag empties clean.

If yours is still in there, it is asking to be used. Use it.