Gourmet Cuisine: How a Healthy Diet Improves Treatment Results
A healthy diet improves treatment results by helping you heal from the damage drug or alcohol use has had on your body. For example, drinking stops nutrients from breaking down, which can result in nutritional deficiencies. Opiate withdrawal can cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, which depletes nutrients. Stimulant abuse suppresses the appetite, and insufficient food intake results in poor nutrition.
A recovery program that serves healthy food and is designed to provide the best nutrition has many benefits. A healthy diet improves treatment results by:
- healing physical damage from substance abuse through nutrition
- giving your body the building blocks it needs to recover
- naturally stabilizing and elevating moods
- helping to prevent relapse
How Nutrition Helps Healing and Recovery
Healthy and delicious foods, like the meals that gourmet dietary plans provide, give you the opportunity to use food as a natural way to feel better physically. Your body is getting the nutrition it needs to function on an optimal level. When you eat nutritious foods that enhance your mood and overall well-being, your diet also helps improve your mental health.
A Healthy Diet Improves Treatment Results by Nourishing Your Body
Nourishing food provides the energy and building blocks your body needs to replace worn or damaged cells. It also gives you the vitamins and minerals needed for your body to function properly. Proper nutrition assists your recovery by giving your body energy, building and repairing tissues and strengthening your immune system.
A Healthy Diet Improves Treatment Results by Nourishing Your Brain
Nutrition plays a significant role in regulating your moods. Research suggests that improving your diet can change the brain’s structure and chemistry and influence your behavior. One study found that a diet rich in vitamins B12 and B6, folic acid and omega-3 fatty acids helped to relieve depression.1 Eating certain foods can increase the production of important neurotransmitters, such as the mood-enhancing chemical serotonin.2
A Healthy Diet Improves Treatment Results by Helping to Prevent Relapse
Research suggests that recovering people with poor dietary habits are more likely to relapse.3 A healthy diet improves treatment results by helping you feel better. When you feel better, you’re less likely to start using alcohol or drugs again.
Substance abuse can decrease the appetite, and many people struggling with substance abuse forget what it feels like to be hungry. This then makes it common to misinterpret hunger as cravings, which can lead to relapse.3 You can decrease the likelihood a potential relapse by eating frequently and ensuring your meals are healthy.
To ensure your healthy diet improves treatment results, consider a residential addiction recovery program that makes sure you eat well. You’ll stick to regular mealtimes overseen by the facility’s staff, so you won’t experience hunger that could be confused as cravings. A trained chef will prepare delicious meals and snacks that are low in fat and high in protein, complex carbohydrates and dietary fiber, giving you the nourishment needed for better treatment results.
References:
