When you’re struggling with addiction, using the substance of choice becomes a top priority. Instead of spending money on healthy foods, you might choose the cheapest and fastest meals. These usually aren’t the most nutritious. Nutrition and recovery aren’t necessarily on your radar.
Except for marijuana and sometimes alcohol, the chances are that you will have less of an appetite while using. On top of this, gastrointestinal symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea keep your body from absorbing nutrition from the food you eat. To reverse this, you must make nutrition part of your addiction treatment. To learn more, contact Serenity House Detox & Recovery Houston today at 866.516.8356.
How Poor Nutrition Impacts the Body and Mind
When you struggle with inadequate nutrition, you get physically weaker and sicker. Without the right nutrients, the body starts eating away at itself. Sores won’t heal. Muscles waste away. Your body feels pain when you don’t have your substance of choice.
Furthermore, your mental health suffers, as well. When you’re missing essential nutrients, the world’s stresses seem more stressful. You may feel irritable, anxious, or depressed.
Nutrition and Recovery
Your body and mind thrive on proper nutrition. So nutrition and recovery go hand in hand. Good nutrition makes it easier to manage pain, physical health conditions, mental health, and cravings.
Everything seems to work better, and you feel like an improved version of yourself. As a result, recovery from substance abuse becomes just a little easier. When you start addiction treatment, you don’t just stop taking a drug, and everything’s fine. Instead, you need to start re-building a healthy body and mind. Then you can start moving in a better direction.
Nutrition directly supports recovery in many ways, such as:
- Improving your immune system: Immunity doesn’t just fight diseases. It determines how adaptable you are when faced with stress, so events feel less stressful.
- Balancing hormones: When hormones are out of balance, you may experience extreme emotions that make managing cravings more difficult. So balancing them gives makes it easier to manage emotions and cravings.
- Reducing pain levels: Often, pain is a sign you’re missing essential nutrients, so nutrition and recovery work hand in hand to make you feel physically better.
- Regulating brain function: You feel less foggy and think, remember, learn, and interact more constructively with others. It also makes the brain more open to learning good habits.
- Whole body-mind healing: Substances can damage cells in the body. Nutrition gives them the building blocks to begin repairing that damage.
What Kinds of Food to Eat During Recovery
The complex carbohydrates found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lentils, and beans can help restore mental calm and clarity. In addition to packing nutrients, they also promote serotonin production. This hormone helps promote mental balance.
You’re probably also lacking in Vitamin B. This lack can cause low energy, mood swings, and a “blah” feeling. Leafy greens, whole grains, meat, and eggs are rich in these nutrients.
Drugs and alcohol also deplete the body of minerals like zinc, magnesium, and calcium. As a result, you may have muscle aches, headaches, joint pain, and mental fogginess. This recovery nutrition is found in fish, dark chocolate, and tree nuts.
Healthy fats are also essential for healing the brain. Your brain is mostly made of fat. It prefers Omega-3’s and monosaturated fats. These are found in tree nuts, fish, olives, flax, chia, and pasture-raised chicken eggs.
Finding Addiction Treatment That Focuses on Nutrition
Nutrition doesn’t stand alone as addiction treatment, but nutrition and recovery work together in many ways. It should be a part of your recovery plan. Serenity House Detox & Recovery Houston helps you get the nutrition you need to begin healing your body and mind. Nutrition is a part of their holistic, individualized, and evidence-based treatment program that includes other treatments like:
- Yoga therapy
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
- Dual diagnosis care
- Chiropractic care
- Trauma therapy program
- Family therapy program
Could nutrition be the missing piece in your own successful recovery story? We encourage you to call us at 866.516.8356 to learn more about our holistic treatment programs.
