Nutrition and Recovery

Eating

We don’t think about our health until our health stops working for us, usually in the form of a disease, a prolonged illness, a virus, or surgery. In all those situations, the goal is to restore our health. When recovering from addiction, it becomes even more essential to think about nutrition: the quality of food we put into our bodies. In recent years, health science has recognized the importance of addressing nutritional balances or imbalances in long-term addiction and mental health management. Nutrition fuels our body, helping achieve the physical and mental demands we place on it.

Health in Recovery

Working hard to integrate health and wellness into your daily habits can be an enjoyable and healthy way of recovering. Developing an awareness of your health should be more than a checklist or a discussion group within the recovery process. For you to continue doing well in recovery, you must plan to improve your health. You should understand that low nutritional intake affects your immunity, muscles, and even your mental health.

Recently, it has been observed that zinc plays an essential role in our immunity and has the potential to positively or negatively affect depression. If you are dealing with co-occurring disorders such as depression, you may consider adding foods high in zinc levels to your diet. 

Recovering from a medical detoxification program requires food that meets the demands of detoxification. During detox, nausea and other related side effects can leave you dehydrated and weak. Additionally, the body is weakened from prolonged substance misuse and may be missing vital minerals and vitamins. Learning to use or incorporate the right foods can restore muscle and skin vitality, helping repair potential damage done to organs.

Cellular Level

Foods packed with vitamin D and calcium, such as dairy products, can help with bone density and immunity. Vitamin D3 is now understood to help prevent cancer and other attacks on our immune system. The vitamin A levels found in dark green leafy vegetables and the beta carotene found in cantaloupe, for example, act as antioxidants attacking free radicals that destroy our cells. Broadly speaking, free radical agents refer to toxicity levels produced by stress that are released into the immune system.

When our cells are attacked and begin to age, they become senescent, still metabolically active but negatively affecting the healthy cells remaining. Those cells also become stressed, divide, and become senescent as well. Imagining your body under attack from stress or denying essential nutrients makes it easy to understand why incorporating a nutritional wellness program into your rehabilitation is vital.

As a guide, eating foods containing ingredients you recognize and can pronounce is always a good choice. Broadly speaking, food options that include four or more ingredients on the label are often highly processed; the more ingredients, the greater the process. Foods high in salt and sugar cause inflammation, including high blood pressure, and can sabotage recovery. 

Eating for Recovery

Changing our eating habits is not easy, and it can be incredibly difficult when we have developed routines driven by our substance misuse. To make the transition a little easier, think of nutrition as helping support the repair of wear and tear on your body after using addictive substances.

We don’t think about our health until it stops working for us. In recent years,  health science has recognized the importance of addressing nutritional balances or imbalances in long-term addiction and mental health management. When we think of our body under attack from stress or the denial of essential nutrients, it is not difficult to understand why incorporating a nutritional wellness program into our rehabilitation process is important. The body, weakened from ongoing substance misuse, may be missing vital minerals and vitamins. Surrounded by the Rocky Mountains’ inspiring landscape, the Detox Center of Colorado offers a solution-based transitional residence program to meet long-term and sustainable recovery needs. No matter how far you’ve traveled on your journey to substance abuse or mental health recovery, we look forward to helping you explore the best supportive treatment and aftercare options available to you. Call the Detox Center of Colorado at (303) 952-5035. It may be the best thing you do for yourself today.

 

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