For the average person, a good balanced diet is very important to maintain optimal functionality and health, on both physical and psychological levels. Down to this, it’s easy to see how important nutrition is when working against abnormal functionality, linked to illness, rehabilitation and addiction recovery.
Understandably, for those living through drug and alcohol addictions, reaching the 5 a day goal or following the guidelines around alcohol consumption will be the least of their worries. The psychological control of drugs and alcohol can take over every aspect of life, including pre-existing desires of remaining healthy, which is a blog in itself.
However, it’s clear to see how important nutrition is, once addiction recovery in drug and alcohol rehab is aimed for, where a balanced diet, where exercise and where the presence of key vitamins, minerals and nutrients can benefit stability.
Without good nutrition, there are a wealth of risks which can not only make addiction recovery even harder but can also increase the risk of future health worries, all-around malnourishment, deficiencies, increased cellular death and around overall low immunity.
With this in mind, here’s the value of diet throughout recovery, the relationship between nutrition and recovery, and the type of support you can source around maintaining optimal nutrition.
We at Addiction Advocates are armed with guidance, knowledge and direction to help clients through addiction recovery by considering every aspect of life, including nutrition.
The value of good nutrition
Good nutrition, as a whole, is very important. To sustain a healthy and long life, a balanced diet is commonly recommended, helping both the body and brain function to their fullest. This recommendation is for the average person, leading an average life.
Yet, for someone who’s already suffering from a condition, whether that’s formed through voluntary or involuntary actions, the value of good nutrition is even stronger. Through a degree of vulnerability when considering health, the body and/or brain will already be under pressure.
Without a balanced diet, your overall health will be at risk of deteriorating, which can not only make the original condition harder to live with, but also reduce quality of life as a whole.
Good nutrition can dictate how hard the body needs to work to respond to certain illnesses, and the recovery of those illnesses, by either providing your internal system with everything it needs to rebuild or a lack of.
This is also the case when considering addiction recovery, shining the light on nutrition and its value throughout drug and alcohol rehabilitation efforts.
Nutrition and recovery efforts – an important relationship
Nutrition and recovery have a very important relationship. Throughout an addiction, down to the neglect of wellbeing and healthy eating habits, there’s a strong likelihood that imbalance will be experienced.
Through imbalance and its effects, deficiencies can develop, malnourishment can develop, health worries can develop, cognitive impairments can develop, and a depleted immune system can develop.
For example, for those who heavily abuse drugs, unhealthy eating habits are likely, the unbearable side effects of drug consumption can suppress appetites, along with the development of hair loss, dental decay, and gastrointestinal problems.
Through starving the body from necessary vitamins and minerals, and by instead filling the gap with harmful and addictive drugs, it’s easy to see how malnourishment can advance.
Another example focuses on alcohol-induced dementia, which is the result of poor diet and excessive abuse of alcohol, causing poor cognitive responses, functions and health. Again, this can result in life-threatening side effects, all down to addictive behaviour and a lack of good nutrition.
In order to revert those impacts on bodily and brain health, ultimately striving for overall recovery, outlooks and efforts around nutrition must be adapted.
This is why nutrition and recovery have a very important relationship, as working through deficiencies and by providing the body/brain with what they need to function can improve addiction recovery capabilities and long-term sobriety rates.
How to eat through addiction recovery
Throughout the addiction recovery process, it’s very important that you aim to eat a balanced diet. At first, this will be challenging, especially if you’re set in your ways with poor eating habits. Yet, eating a full range of foods, full of vital nutrients are recommended, offering optimal levels of vitamins, minerals and electrolytes to function.
The way to see nutrition and recovery as a relationship is to consider the benefits that consuming positive, fresh and healthy produce will have on your body and brain, while eliminating the negative consumption of drugs and/or alcohol.
By flipping the balance, your body will be stronger to fight through withdrawal symptoms, to re-energise and commit to the long-term recovery timescale, and to stand up against common conditions, linked to drug and alcohol abuse.
The importance of a balanced diet should always be promoted, yet especially when making such a significant change to existing consumption levels, habits and internal stability.
Good nutrition, healthy foods and a balanced diet can therefore help to ease brain recovery, can reduce the severity of withdrawal symptoms, can offer mental clarity and can also increase motivation and positive reinforcements to continue the recovery process.
The aim of addiction recovery is to restore the body and mind, away from drugs and alcohol. Good nutrition will contribute to this aim, placing both body and mind in the best position to withdraw and rehabilitate.
Nutrition support and addiction treatment services
Throughout rehab, nutrition support will be on offer, alongside further pinnacle addiction treatment services. Down to the positive relationship of nutrition and recovery, consumption of foods and nutrition, good for brain recovery will be encouraged, nutritional supplements may also be recommended, and restoring efforts will be promoted.
Alongside detoxing from drugs and alcohol, and alongside recovering on a psychological scale, improving bodily and brain health is key. Through good nutrition, this is possible, helping to improve drug and alcohol addiction recovery rates.
Understandably, the focus is commonly placed on removing the unhealthy substances from your body. Yet to reach full recovery, the focus must also be placed on what you fill the gap with, by replacing drugs or alcohol with good nutrition.
Consider the relationship between nutrition and recovery while contacting our team at Addiction Advocates. We’re here to guide you through your addiction recovery journey.
