Gallstones have been typically associated with overweight people, not crash dieters. Risk factors include being female, being overweight or obese, having a high fat or low fiber diet and having diabetes.
Gallstones are hardened deposits of bile, which is produced in the gallbladder. Bile emulsifies fat during digestion. The gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped organ on the right side of the abdomen, just beneath the liver.
Gallstones can range in size from as small as a grain of sand to as large as a golf ball. As many as 20 million people in the United States have gallstones.
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According to a new study from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, crash dieting also tends to increase the risk of developing gallstones. The researchers explained that rapid weight loss induced by very low calorie diets impacts the cholesterol and salt contents of bile, as well as the emptying of the gallbladder. Both of which can contribute to gallstones.
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