Newbie with Gallstones needs Fat Free Cooking Advice

seraphina

Shysarah wrote: »

Thank you all for your advice. I will check out those links next Pink thanks and also look into R.C.'s diet.

Does anyone have any shopping tips as that's my main problem?

I am doing a lot to be conservative with my funds as I mentioned in my primary post but I am wondering if anyone has any other ideas?

I also always go for the home or value ranges too, I work in the food industry (when I am well) and have for 10+ years so am used to seeing what really goes into things..

I don't drink which is a good job really as with all the pain relief and alcohol I would be even more loopy than I am already lol

Your advice is greatly appreciated..
Sarah x

Is it worth giving online shopping a go? If you can't get out and about at the moment having your shopping delivered seems like the way to go. Also would be quite handy to sit in front of the 'puter planning out your meals and doing the shopping at the same time:D

Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery!

adelight

Dried beans and lentils are very cheap and low in fat, less than 0.5g per serving(if not 0g!) for most varieties.
What about a vegetarian spag bol with chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, lentils, carrots, corgettes?
Or a fish pie using skim milk or soy milk with flour and herbs for the sauce, with pollock and prawns (<1g fat per serving and pollock is the cheap "white fish" that I find to actually be rather tasty!), lentils and carrot, topped with mash. Both very cheap and tasty I've never used butter, cream or expensive fish in my fish pies and they're delicious. I'd estimate a generous serving of fish pie that way to contain no more than 4g of fat, 2g if you used skim milk!

If you like soft cheese try quark as it's naturally virtually fat free. Mr S variety is like double cream, great with some sugar and cocoa for a cheesecake style dessert, where as Mr W and Mr T's are more like ricotta and make a great cherry tomato and quark pizza on a pita bread.


Shopping tips: dried lentils and pulses (~89p for 500g, waitrose has the best variety), pollock, lidl. Just have a quick glance at the back of the packet. Most fruit and veg, excluding avocados, are extremely low in fat.

bigsmoke

firstly, hugs to you Sarah!

my only tip would be meat replacements: most of the plain quorn, tofu, dried soya etc products are either very low fat or fat free and can be much cheaper than meat.

iceland often sell quorn pieces, sausages and mince cheaply.
dried soya mince is really really cheap from somewhere like holland and barrett (or probably even larger supermarkets), very easy to cook and very filling. i think i saw on here somewhere that someone had tried for years to make their chilli taste as good as their mum's and, when they finally asked, it turned out she'd been bulking it out with soya mince? :rotfl:

best of luck with it

bs x

ALIBOBSY

Soya and in fact pulses in general have been found to actually reduce blood bad cholesterol levels so doublely good.

ali x

zebberishus

I am in the same boat as you ! also been suffering from them for quite a few months-absolute agony isn't it, and pretty scary-
the low fat diet has worked wonders for me, ( hope you are recieving medical advice !_
here is one of my quick dishes
Tomato (tinned or fresh) with spinach (cooked from frozen) and chopped basil or coriander - served ontop of pasta (very cheap) with a little bit of half fat cheese grated ontop.
pudding - frozen raspberries (cheap from tesco) with low fat yogurt on top.
also how about baked spud with baked beans ?
a hot onion bagel topped with some tuna (from a can with brine not oil) and a small bit of low fat cheese - grill it !
home made vegetable soups
grilled fish with veg
Good luck

meanmarie

I was diagnosed with gall stones almost 20 years ago and managed to survive fairly painlessly by cutting out cheese, eggs and butter....didn't use a substitute. Eventually had an operation in 1999 by which time I had also cut out any confectionery, especially anything with cream.

Would agree that lots of veg, soya mince, pulses can help make up a tasty diet with very low fat content, fish is another one I wouldn't avoid, can be cheap as in pollock, mackerel or frozen....don't fry anything, steam as much as possible.

I used to find white bread a bit iffy sometimes, but you will gradually get to know what you can and can't comfortably eat.

HTH

Marie

patchwork_cat

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

Some recent medical studies show that natural fats such as butter and milk actually break down in the body into "good" blood cholesterol, but most governments aren't changing the current guidence as yet. One thing we all should avoid is so called trans fats, bad for all of us especially those with cholesterol/heart problems.



ali x

Have you got any links to this as I am interested.

To the OP. Porridge for breakfast. Then plenty of pulses and seasonal veg for other meals. If you have apples they are an excellent source of soluble fibre (along with the beta glucagon in porridge - there is more in oatbran, but it is more expensive than porridge).

GEEGEE8

Pasta with tomato based sauce would be low in fat and very cheap. I just got a 3kg bag of pasta shells from Tesco for £2, and a lot of Homepride sauces are on offer for 71p at the moment, things like pasta bake, chicken provencal (sp?) etc..

I had gallstones and ended up in hospital 4 times on Morphine before I got them out, it was the size of a huge olive with the stone still in.. I've got it in a jar! lol.

I'm not sure what else to suggest really. Chicken and fish are lower in fat than red meats.

If you can get to a supermarket an hour before closing on a sat night, they usually sell loads of stuff for pennies, as they are closed overnight for sunday trading laws.

Simba_25

Its amazing how gallstones effect people differently isnt it, i was diagnosed with them almost 2 years ago and was booked in to have my gallbladder out but fell pregnant so had to wait...9 months with no pain relief so i can definately sympathise with the pain aspect!....I did however find i was fine will all foods as long as it wasnt fried! nothing else really bothered me, the worst part weas all through my pregnancy i craved a certain pizza from my local shop....so i had to suffer the pain a few times to give in to my craving lol. I eventually had my gallbladder out (with no horror stories) in march and since then ive been fine will all food except cheese....altho the pain isnt as bad as it was before so i do tend to put up with it cause i love cheese too much lol

purpleheather2810

The thing about buying tins and jars of stuff is that they all have fat in - just check the labels. If you make your own tomato pasta sauce you don't need to add ANY fat whatsoever and it will be cheaper. You could spray the pan very lightly with olive oil before you start but you can dry fry onions, veg etc and therefore have VERY low fat meals. I am currently on WW which is a very low fat diet (if you do it properly obviously...) and they advise making full use of herbs and spices to make food more exciting rather than any form of fat, including grated cheese.... Although I do sometimes add grated parmesan to things because it has a more intense flavour than cheddar therefore you only need a tiny bit - less fat.