I know it wasn't about me in particular. I was just reporting my own preference. I don't know how most people drink their coffee!
From what I see with studies, they just say what is 'associated' with what. When they do that, it suggests other studies can either expand on their results or provide some counterbalancing study that refines the conclusion.
'Association ' is not a 'weasel' word - it's just a way to deal with the 'chicken or the egg' situations of most questions. In what overall dietary context? Depends on the study. Gall stones and gall bladder disease have been studied a lot!
From a very small study 'Gallbladder motility and lithogenesis in obese patients during diet-induced weight loss.' (2000)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10711462
'Stone et al studied GB
emptying in response to various stimuli in obese and
normal-BMI subjects, showing that a liquid meal containing
less than 1 g fat resulted in blunted GB
emptying and that the addition of at least 10 g of fat
to the meal restored GB emptying to the maximalstimulus
level. This may thus help to explain the
predisposition to cholelithiasis of patients on extremely
low fat diets and the resistance to stone
formation with normal fat containing diets. However
cholelithiasis from rapid weight loss may not be solely
attributable to GB stasis, as shown by recent experiments
by Vezina et al indicating that increasing
the fat content of a liquid diet over that required to
obtain a maximal GB emptying (16 g vs 30 g fat daily)
did not reduce significantly the risk of cholelithiasis
(17% and 11.2% respectively; P 5 0.18).
In our patients we used a diet with 26 g/day fat and
this probably is the main reason why we observed a
relatively low incidence of gallstone formation in our
obese dieters (1/10). Gebhard et al showed that
four of six obese subjects on a 520-kcal/day diet with
2 g fat per day developed gallstones, while none of
seven patients did on 900-kcal/day with 30 g of fat per
day. Both diets induced comparable weight loss of
about 22%, and a significant increase in CSI during
dieting. These findings suggest that the risk of gallstone
formation during weight loss may be reduced,
providing 20–25 g of fat in the diet. Similar results
have been shown recently by Festi et al comparing
the effect of two different very-low-calorie diet
regimens (3 vs 12.2 g fat/day) in 22 gallstone-free
obese subjects. Our group did lose 14% of their initial
weight, but we did not observe significant changes in
CSI during weight loss.
In summary, obese subjects have a significantly
larger GBFV than nonobese controls. This finding
may be explained by their larger body size. Considering
that in our study only one patient developed
gallstones, not too many conclusions can be drawn
about this outcome.
Nevertheless, during weight loss
we did not observe significant changes in any of the
lithogenic variables studied, including gallbladder volume
measurements for individual patients. The relatively
low incidence of gallstones in our study (1/10)
could be partly explained by the fat content of the diet
and by the normal GB emptying observed in these
patients during the study. The only subject who developed
gallstones showed a sluggish initial GB emptying
and cholesterol crystals in bile. These signs
could be considered premonitory for gallstone formation,
and it could be useful to study them in obese
subjects entering a weight reduction program, to select
patients susceptible to stone formation and prevent
it by the oral administration of ursodeoxycholic
acid.'
This was a study of ten people. The one person who developed gall stones was measured to have 'sluggish' initial GB emptying. There were 10 participants but only 6 completed the study! GBFV=Gall Bladder Fasting Volume. NT=nucleation time.
(Note: 26 grams of fat to avoid gallstone formation? That's 134 calories worth of fat in a day. That's not even two tablespoons of olive oil!)
And the last line of this study
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7637561
says:
'These studies indicate that substitution of 18:1 for saturated fatty acids in low-fat diets reduces gallstone formation without affecting the lithogenic index. Furthermore, intake of 18:2 at or below the EFA requirement does not appear to be a major factor in this model.'
18:1 is olive oil.