Chili, and in particular, chili that contains meat, should be handled as you would any other cooked dish. Refrigerate it within two hours of serving. Cut that margin of safety to one hour if the weather is hot and you’re outdoors. Both low and high temperatures slow bacterial growth and keep food safe longer.

To maximize the shelf life of cooked chili for safety and quality, refrigerate the chili promptly in covered airtight containers. Bacteria grow rapidly at temperatures between 40 °F and 140 °F; cooked chili should be discarded if left out for more than 2 hours at room temperature.

140 °F

two hours

A healthy balanced diet consists of:

• Plenty of fruit and vegetables.
• Plenty of starchy carbohydrates.
• Some milk and dairy products (2-3 portions per day).
• Some meat, fish, eggs and alternatives such as beans and pulses.
• Limited amounts of foods high in fats and sugars.
• Make sure your diet is high in fibre.

But these desserts can be quite high in fat and if you’re following a diet for gallbladder health, you’ll have to avoid them. Instead, choose fruit and yogurt, non-dairy frozen desserts, fruit pies, or light cookies. Salty treats, like pretzels and chips, must also be avoided, unfortunately.

Foods with trans fats, like those in processed or commercially baked products, can also be harmful to gallbladder health. Avoiding refined white foods, like white pastas, breads, and sugars, can protect your gallbladder.

Any diet that would qualify as “heart-healthy” is “gallbladder-healthy,” too. That means a diet with some healthy monounsaturated fats, such as those in nuts, avocados, seeds, olives, peanut butter, and the oils from these products.

Pick Whole Grains That protects your heart and helps keep gallstones away. Fiber gets your digestive system moving and flushes bile from your body. Aim to eat more high-fiber foods like whole-grain bread and pasta and brown or wild rice. Other whole grains include oatmeal, popcorn, barley, and bulgur.

Contributing factors to gallstone formation include hypomotility of gall bladder and supersaturation of bile due to rapid weight loss and mobilization of cholesterol. Previous studies revealed oral probiotics could reduce the cholesterol level by as much as 22% to 33%.

What foods should I eat?

• beans.
• lentils.
• peas.
• potatoes with skin.
• oats.
• barley.
• whole grain bread, pasta, rice, and cereal.
• raw nuts (not roasted in oils), such as almonds, walnuts, and cashews.