The Importance of Nutrition in Addiction Recovery

Written by Brandon Okey. Mina Draskovic, B.Psy., reviewed this content for accuracy.

Nutrition plays a key role in overall health, particularly when it comes to addiction recovery. Typically, detoxing happens in the early stages of recovery to get all drugs and substances out of the system. This can lead to withdrawals and malnutrition—combat these things with nutrition for an easier path to recovery. Introducing proper nutrition into your diet can help you get stronger as you recover and help you to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The Importance of Nutrition

Drug withdrawals can cause discomforts such as drowsiness, headaches, depression, and malnutrition. Many drugs can cause you to either have a suppressed or increase appetite, which can mess with your eating habits. Nutrition is often an overlooked part of recovery, but it plays a big role. Strengthening yourself through proper nutrition can help you overcome drug cravings and stay clean. Continuous abstinence from substance abuse and practicing healthy eating habits will help a person to regain and maintain their overall health. Proper nutrition can be achieved through healthy eating habits—this will rejuvenate the mind and body, improve overall well-being, and sobriety.

Don’t Replace One Bad Habit with Another

It’s common to turn to unhealthy habits, such as overeating or poor eating when recovering from an addiction. It’s easy to fill that void with something else, but unhealthy diets actually inhibit recovery. Similar to withdrawals, unhealthy eating can lead to headaches, problems sleeping, and low energy levels. Be wary of distracting yourself from substance cravings with unhealthy foods. People frequent turn to sugary and fatty foods for comfort or distraction, but it is harmful to your recovery process. Sugar has no nutritional value and can provide its own addiction. Too much sugar will increase dopamine levels, which will give you cravings for more.

Strengthening the Body and Improving Moods

Certain addictive substance can reap havoc on your nutrition. For example, alcohol can disrupt to even prevent nutrient breakdown and other processes in the body. Gastrointestinal problems can be caused by opiates. It’s common knowledge that marijuana brings on the “munchies” which often leads to overeating. Withdrawals can also lead to vomiting or diarrhea, which leads to dehydration and drains nutrients from the body. In contrast to all of this, nutrients give the body energy and help it to restore what’s been lost. Proper nutrition can repair organ tissue and help the body start to rebuild. Certain nutrients produce neurotransmitters in the brain that can improve moods. A lack of food can make us feel easily irritated, or what has been commonly adopted as “hangry.” Many research studies have proven that diet impacts the brain both physiologically and chemically. These impacts can be negative or positive—it’s up to you and what you are choosing to put in your body. If you or a loved one is struggling with substance abuse—help can be found at the Ardu Recovery Center. We will work with you through your recovery, help you to restore your health, and maintain a nutritious diet.

Brandon Okey is the co-founder of Ardu Recovery Center and is dedicated to empowering people on their journey to sobriety.

The Importance of Nutrition in Addiction Recovery

The Importance of Nutrition

Don’t Replace One Bad Habit with Another

Strengthening the Body and Improving Moods

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