Women who eat a lot of vegetables to fulfill the protein requirement of their diet are less likely at risk of having their gallbladder removed. This type of surgery is usually required for removal of gallstones and other similar problems.
It has been already discovered that protein derived from vegetables could prevent gallstones from forming in animals, however few studies that tested the effect in humans have been performed. The 20-year follow-up on a study of 121,000 women revealed that 7,831 of the women had their gallbladders removed, a surgery known as cholecystectomy.
Findings from the data on the women who underwent the cholecystectomy showed that total protein and animal protein intake had no bearing on the potential risk of choleystectomy. On the other hand, the risk of undergoing a cholecystectomy decreased when there was a high intake of vegetable protein.
Based on these results researchers recommended that women boost their consumption of vegetable protein as a protective measure against the likelihood of needing cholecystectomy.
American Journal of Epidemiology July 1, 2004;160(1):11-8
Dietary protein and the risk of cholecystectomy in a cohort of US women: the Nurses’ Health Study.
Tsai CJ, Leitzmann MF, Willett WC, Giovannucci EL.
Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. hpcjt@channing.harvard.edu
In animals, vegetable protein can inhibit gallstone formation. Epidemiologic studies of dietary protein in relation to gallstone disease are sparse, and the effects of dietary protein of different origins are not clear. The authors aimed to examine the relation between dietary protein intake and risk of cholecystectomy among participants in the Nurses’ Health Study, a cohort study of US women in 11 states. During 20 years of follow-up (1980-2000), the authors documented 7,831 cases of cholecystectomy. After adjustment for age, other known or suspected risk factors, and specific fats in a multivariate model, the relative risk of cholecystectomy for women in the highest quintile of dietary total protein intake compared with women in the lowest quintile was 1.00 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.93, 1.08; p for trend = 0.46). When extreme quintiles were compared, the relative risk for animal protein intake was 1.07 (95% CI: 0.98, 1.15; p for trend = 0.08), whereas the relative risk for vegetable protein intake was 0.79 (95% CI: 0.71, 0.88; p for trend < 0.0001), with a significant dose-response relation. Additional mutual adjustment between animal and vegetable proteins did not materially alter the risks. These results suggest that increased consumption of vegetable protein in the context of an energy-balanced diet can reduce the risk of cholecystectomy in women. Copyright 2004 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
PMID: 15229112 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]