Skipping Meals, Especially Breakfast
When the gallbladder sits idle for long periods, bile, the digestive fluid it stores, becomes concentrated. Concentrated bile is exactly the environment in which cholesterol crystals begin to form. A 2013 study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology found that fasting for more than 14 hours a day significantly increased gallstone risk. The habit of skipping breakfast, common among working adults who grab chai and nothing else before a long commute, keeps the gallbladder stagnant for hours past the overnight fast. The organ needs a fat-containing meal to contract and flush bile through. Without that signal, stasis builds.
