The Importance of Good Nutrition in Recovery

Drug and alcohol abuse takes a major toll on your physical and mental health. The substance itself damages your mind and your health, and the lifestyle choices associated with addiction typically include poor nutrition and a lack of exercise. Combined, these can lead to malnourishment, which affects all of your body’s systems and results in poor overall physical and mental health.

Once you enter recovery, good nutrition is essential for helping to undo the damaging effects of substance abuse and promote successful recovery.

Good Nutrition and Withdrawal

During the detox process, which is the first step of addiction treatment, good nutrition can ease many of the symptoms of withdrawal, including cravings and gastrointestinal problems like diarrhea and vomiting, according to the National Institute of Health.

Eating plenty of fiber and complex carbohydrates during withdrawal promotes optimal detoxification, and drinking plenty of water helps to prevent electrolyte imbalances and dehydration, which can make you feel much worse than necessary.

Eating healthy food during detox also helps improve your state of mind. Good nutrition makes you feel stronger, and it lifts your mood and promotes a higher sense of wellbeing.

Healthy Food Helps Reverse the Effects of Addiction

Addiction can cause deficiencies of essential vitamins and minerals, particularly vitamin B6, folic acid and thiamine. These deficiencies can lead to anemia and neurological problems, and damage done to the pancreas and liver contributes to serious electrolyte imbalances. Good nutrition helps reverse these problems.

Additionally, certain drugs can cause unhealthy weight gain or dangerous weight loss. Reaching a healthy weight during recovery requires optimal nutrition, which also helps reduce inflammation, improve brain function and stabilize blood sugar to help ease insomnia, mood swings, cravings and depression, according to Today’s Dietician.

A Healthy Diet Helps Prevent Relapse

The National Institutes of Health points out that a healthy diet in recovery has numerous psychological benefits. Good nutrition makes you feel healthy and strong, and people who feel healthy and strong are less likely to relapse. Additionally, enjoying good nutrition often leads to other healthy lifestyle choices, and these combine to improve your overall physical and mental health and sense of well-being. The better you feel, and the more control you feel you have over your health, the more successful your recovery is likely to be.

Tips for Healthy Eating in Recovery

Even small lifestyle changes surrounding good nutrition can add up to big benefits. Here are some ways to improve your nutrition and enjoy better health during recovery:

• Eat regular meals to help you maintain stable blood sugar and stabilize your mood.
• Eat healthy snacks that contain both a carbohydrate and a protein, such as an apple and a handful of almonds.
• Avoid unhealthy fats and added sugar, which promote inflammation and make you feel sluggish. Instead, focus on eating whole foods like fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and whole grains.
• Eat plenty of healthy fats, such as nuts, avocados and fatty fish to help promote healthy brain function and improve your mood.
• Drink plenty of fluids, but avoid caffeine, which can prevent other nutrients from being optimally absorbed as well as cause irritability and insomnia.

Exercise for Even More Benefits

Combining a healthy diet with daily exercise will go even further toward helping you improve your physical and mental health during recovery. Regular exercise promotes quality sleep, improves the functioning of your body’s various systems, reduces anxiety and depression and helps alleviate cravings. It improves your overall health and fosters other healthy lifestyle choices that promote successful recovery.

Good nutrition and daily exercise will leave you feeling physically and mentally fit and better equipped to weather the many challenges of recovery. It’s never too late to start eating healthy food and moving your body, and the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll reap the many benefits.