Can Eating Popcorn Cause Gallbladder Attacks?

The gallbladder is a small-but-mighty organ that helps you digest fats. Unfortunately, it can sometimes cause trouble in the form of gallbladder attacks.

While gallbladder attacks are often caused by genetic predisposition and underlying illness, certain foods can also affect your chances of having an attack.

That said, are your beloved snacks (like popcorn) among those problematic foods? Find out whether popcorn or other corn products, such as tortilla chips, are bad for your gallbladder, along with other foods that could cause gallbladder attacks.

The gallbladder is a pear-shaped organ located near the liver. It's essentially a storage center for bile — a fluid that helps digest fats, per the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Occasionally, this bile forms stones (aka, gallstones), which can block the bile from leaving the gallbladder. When this blockage occurs, it's referred to as a gallbladder attack, per the NIH.

Symptoms of a gallbladder attack include acute pain accompanied by other symptoms like nausea, bloating and gas, especially after eating. You may even experience fever, chills and vomiting along with yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice).

This attack can last several hours, or until you pass the gallstones, per Johns Hopkins Medicine. If you have any of these symptoms, you should call your doctor.

It isn't really popcorn itself that can cause a gallbladder attack, but more so its common toppings that can potentially cause gallbladder issues.

If you're not allergic to corn, popcorn itself can actually be a nutritious, whole-grain choice even when you have gallbladder issues. This is because popcorn is high in fiber (with about 3.5 grams per 3-cup serving, per the USDA), which is a key component to a diet for a healthy gallbladder, per an April 2023 study in ‌BMC Gastroenterology‌.

For example, air-popped popcorn with minimal toppings is low in trans fat and cholesterol, both of which contribute to gallstone formation, per Johns Hopkins Medicine.

It's what you ‌put on the popcorn‌ that can add cholesterol and trans fats to your diet, therefore exasperating gallbladder issues. Adding butter, cheese and other high-fat toppings to popcorn (like with movie theater popcorn) increases your chances of an attack, as these toppings can raise your cholesterol levels, per the Mayo Clinic.

So eating air-popped popcorn, along with eating other low-cholesterol foods, can help reduce the chance of gallstones and thereby the number of gallbladder attacks you get.

While it's not ‌exactly‌ clear why gallstones and gallbladder attacks happen, there are a few theories doctors have as to why gallstones form and lead to a gallbladder attack, including the following, per the Mayo Clinic:

• ‌Too much cholesterol in your bile:‌ If your liver excretes more cholesterol than your bile can dissolve, it may form into crystals and eventually stones.
• ‌Too much bilirubin in your bile:‌ When your body breaks down red blood cells, you create bilirubin. Certain conditions can cause you to create too much bilirubin, including cirrhosis, infections and certain blood disorders.
• ‌Your gallbladder is not emptying correctly:‌ This can cause bile to become concentrated and form gallstones.

What you eat has the potential to trigger a gallbladder attack, too. Any food high in cholesterol (like red meat, fried foods and oils) and low in fiber (like refined grains) can increase your risk of gallstones and thereby, a gallbladder attack, per the Mayo Clinic.

Foods that can possibly trigger a gallbladder attack and contribute to gallbladder disease include the following, per the National Health Service:

• Fried foods (fried meat, fried eggs, fried fish)
• Tinned fish in oil (like sardines)
• Fatty processed meats (sausages, burger patties, salami and bacon)
• Whole milk and full-fat dairy products
• Chips and other high-fat snack foods
• Nuts
• Refined carbohydrates (pizza, pastries, pasta, sugary desserts)

Fresh or canned sweet corn, cornmeal, popcorn, corn flour and flour made from whole-grain corn or maize all contain an ingredient called salicylates — chemicals naturally present in many fruits and vegetables, per a March 2021 study in ‌Nutrients‌.

Some people are sensitive to salicylates in food and will experience a reaction after eating just a small amount, including diarrhea, skin rashes and swelling, per the National Health Service. Stomach pain is also often a symptom of salicylate sensitivity, which can be confused with the pain of a gallbladder attack.

There is no known evidence, however, to suggest that salicylate consumption causes gallbladder attacks. The two issues may just get confused as their symptoms are similar.

Apart from gallbladder attacks, you can also have gallbladder disease or a predisposition to gallstone formation. Some factors that put you at higher risk include the following, per the Mayo Clinic:

• Gaining weight
• Eating foods high in fat, sugar and cholesterol
• Being assigned female at birth (AFAB)
• Being over age 40
• Having a family history of gallstones
• Being pregnant
• Having diabetes
• Having blood disorders (like sickle cell anemia)
• Having liver disease
• Being on hormone replacement therapy
• Having coronary artery disease (a risk factor for gallbladder disease, too)

There are many different ways to decrease the frequency and severity of gallbladder attacks, including the following, per the Mayo Clinic:

• Maintaining an appropriate weight for your body
• Losing weight slowly if you need to
• Eating high-fiber foods
• Avoiding skipping meals

High-fat foods such as fried chicken, onion rings, french fries and foods with a lot of butter can trigger a gallbladder attack. To avoid an attack, you should aim for foods that are high in fiber such as grains, nuts and vegetables, per the Mayo Clinic.

Because popcorn is high in fiber, it is a great choice for people managing gallbladder issues. It's when you add butter and other high-fat products to popcorn (and any food, for that matter) that it increases your chances of having a gallbladder attack.

Choosing low-fat popcorn toppings and eating other low-cholesterol, high-fiber foods may help you prevent gallbladder attacks.