Nutrition is a vital part of your addiction recovery. When you abuse alcohol or substances, your body loses the nutrition it needs to stay healthy; nutrition that the brain, liver, lungs, immune system, and every other area of the body needs to stay healthy.
How addiction depletes the body’s nutrition
When you abuse alcohol or other substances, the body becomes depleted of nutrition it needs to stay healthy. The longer you abuse drugs or alcohol the less nutrition your body is able to absorb. Also, with the exception of marijuana, you eat less.
The lack of nutrition puts a strain on the immune system and you easily catch any virus that is going around taxing the immune system even more. It is a vicious cycle and not just with the immune system. The liver filters out impurities and toxins from the blood. If you abuse alcohol it builds up fat in your liver making it unable to filter out the things it should, especially when you are no longer eating a healthy diet.
As you continue substance and alcohol abuse and eating poorly your body will start trying to take nutrition from one area and give it to an area that is in worse shape. Again the vicious cycle continues.
Diet helps with recovery and health
Your diet helps with recovery and overall health. You need to understand that it is not going to happen overnight after years of abusing drugs or alcohol. The longer you eat a healthy balanced diet the better you will feel and the healthier you will become.
Many will trade one addiction drugs or alcohol for a food addiction especially to sugar. That is not a wise option. Sugar does not provide any nutrition, minerals, or vitamins to your body. That is not to say you can never have sugar just be watchful of how much sugar you use. Drink plenty of water too as it helps hydrate your body and flush out the impurities.
The best diet and foods for recovery
The best diet is one that you can stay with and enjoy. The best food choices are whole foods such as vegetables and fruits. You need to balance out your carbs, protein, and fats. A place to start is to make your diet around 45% simple carbs such as fruit, vegetables, and dairy, 35% protein that you can get from fish, poultry, meat, eggs, nuts, quinoa, and beans, and 20% good fats. Good fats can be found in fish, nuts, avocados, and yogurt.
These foods will help you rebalance your health. They provide nutrition to the brain, liver, kidneys, lungs, digestive system, and immune system. Feeding your brain is important; it allows you to learn the tools you need to beat your addiction.
At 449 Recovery we provide a safe environment for recovery. Call us today (855) 435-7449 to learn more about monitored detox program, the therapies we offer, and foods you will eat while you are with us. The goal of 449 Recovery is to help each patient navigate the road of recovery from beginning to end to live their best life.