Why it’s important to keep a healthy diet during recovery
Addiction recovery is a broad, complex process to work through. There are many different avenues of health, wellbeing and life to consider beyond the activity of drug and alcohol withdrawal.
As addiction is recognised as a physical and psychological condition, a comprehensive effort of recovery must be aimed for.
Within that comprehensive effort falls the benefits of a healthy diet, good nutrition and overall wellbeing goals. While the food itself may not have any direct impact on an addiction diagnosis, triggers or side effects, it can however reduce the quality of life, suppress health and internal functioning, and can also impact addiction recovery rates and motives.
Alone, these reasons highlight why it’s important to keep a healthy diet during recovery, through both residential healthy eating behaviours and post-rehab intentions. Without maintaining both, poor nutrition can result in many negative feelings, which can trigger the relapse of addictive behaviours and mental health issues.
Here are the expected benefits of the right nutrition during recovery, along with the type of nutritional support you can access here at Cassiobury Court.
The effects of poor diet and Addiction
A poor diet will not act as a trigger of addiction unless you’re addicted to food. Yet, a poor diet can aggravate the severity of an addiction, can impact the quality of life, and can also reduce recovery capabilities and motivations.
In order to function optimally, key vitamins, nutrients, amino acids and minerals will be required by the body. Without their presence, resembling a poor diet, feelings of fatigue, sluggishness and of laziness are all common, which do not link well with the motivation required to overcome an addiction. Those feelings can also heighten cravings, which can in fact intensify their effect, acting as an obstacle through recovery.
However, the greatest effects of a poor diet are that internally, the body cannot combat the adaptations and damages linked to a drug and alcohol addiction. A poor diet can result in a suppressed immune system, can heighten obesity rates, can impact blood sugar levels and blood pressure levels, and can also induce some mental health issues.
All of these consequences can be the result of a poor diet, which can not only make living with an addiction tough but also the likelihood of completing addiction recovery.
Why a Healthy Diet is Important During Addiction Recovery
When looking at why it’s important to keep a healthy diet during recovery, there are a number of key reasons. Firstly, a healthy diet can provide the body with all the necessary vitamins and minerals to combat the internal damages caused by toxicity.
A balanced diet will provide exposure to a wealth of vitamins, which when combined together can improve the strength of the immune system, can help promote normal functionality of key systems, and can also maintain energy levels. All are very important when working through withdrawal, to uphold health, along with easing long-term recovery efforts.
Secondly, a healthy diet during recovery can elevate your mood, improve your mental health and offer clarity. Positivity and rational thinking are very important when completing the addiction recovery journey.
Food can help to produce longstanding happy chemicals, along with offering emotional, mental and physical benefits. Those positives can help to maintain your mindset and reduce the risk of relapse.
Thirdly, focusing on your nutritional efforts can help you regain control over your internal functioning levels. Right now, drugs and alcohol may have full control, which is being enabled by poor diet, disinterested outlooks, and by uncontrollable cravings. Through a healthy diet, you can regain that control, which will benefit your internal systems.
Lastly, why it’s important to keep a healthy diet during recovery is fully embodied by the routine and lifestyle that food and nutrients can provide. By combining the above benefits, you can develop and maintain healthy lifestyle choices which will provide greater motivation and capabilities of recovery.
Ultimately, all of the decisions you make through rehab and long-term recovery will direct your results. Positive influences, including your diet, can help with those decisions, helping you lean towards recovery, rather than relapse.
For mental, physical and emotional benefits, keeping a healthy diet during recovery is significantly recommended. Not only can it provide your insides with the fuel and foundation to overcome addiction, but it can also improve your outlook and mental health, all contributing towards comprehensive recovery.
Healthy eating behaviours at Cassiobury Court
As there are many benefits of following a healthy diet during recovery, we at Cassiobury Court fully promote healthy eating behaviours. Through nutritional education sessions, we look to enhance the way that our clients look at food.
Food can act as a restoring and highly supportive resource, which is required to combat any degree of the condition. In fact, good nutrition is necessary to maintain general health, never mind addiction recovery. All of these key factors are focused on through rehab, along with normalising healthy eating behaviours.
Nutritional therapy will therefore be on offer, along with guidance when rebuilding lifestyle choices. As we’ve shared above, there’s a low chance that your current diet will influence your drug and alcohol consumption.
Yet, moving forward, your diet can unravel your progress, as a change in routine can heighten relapse risks. We will work with you to normalise positive lifestyle choices which surround healthy eating behaviours, making it easier for you to maintain sobriety and long-term recovery.
A healthy diet alone will not carry your recovery capabilities. A wide range of addiction treatment services, recovery steps and coping techniques will need to be completed and/or utilised. Yet, maintaining a healthy diet can significantly improve your recovery capabilities, which we fully back at Cassiobury Court.
Learn why it’s important to keep a healthy diet during recovery along with following such intentions through our services. Through a comprehensive form of rehab, you can improve your quality of life on a 360 basis. Aim for this with our guidance by considering each area of your reality, including your diet, health and nutrition.
