Guidance on How Diet Can Help Drug Detox and Recovery
Identifying the best foods for detoxing from drugs is an important part of moving successfully into recovery. The detox process is challenging, but using a balanced and nutritious diet can help you get through this phase and move on in your journey.
Below, we’ll discuss what a balanced diet looks like during detox. Knowing how to use nutrient dense foods to help get through detox from drug and alcohol addiction will improve your odds and may help to mute the worst of the withdrawal symptoms.
In addition to using a healthy diet, it’s also smart to work with trained professional support to get through detox safely. For that, contact Ingrained Recovery in Eastman, GA, right away.
We have a team of experienced professionals on our staff and we can guide you through detox as the first big step away from drug and alcohol abuse. We look forward to receiving your call.
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The Inherent Challenges of Detox
Detoxing from a drug or alcohol addiction is never easy. There are a few specific challenges that are faced when you try to stop using a substance that has become a regular part of your life. Your body has become physically dependent on that substance, and when you take it away, plenty of different issues are going to arise.
The primary challenge you face is the many physical withdrawal symptoms that arise. Detox is quite uncomfortable from a physical perspective, and can even be dangerous to your overall health.
Drug or alcohol detox should be done under the care of a medical professional to manage your health and any severe withdrawal symptoms that arise along the way.
Other Challenges That Arise During the Detox Process
There are also mental health battles to fight during this time. You have some underlying reason for turning to substance abuse, and once you take away the substance, you’ll feel vulnerable and have to face that issue or issues directly. Not to mention those drug and alcohol withdrawal symptoms you may already be all too familiar with.
This is one of the hardest parts of addiction recovery. Confronting the difficult parts of your life by entering a substance abuse treatment program instead of continuing to use drugs or alcohol is daunting. It’s also a necessary step and a move that could free you from substance use disorders moving forward.
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Why Diet Matters During Detox
Knowing that the detox process is going to be a challenge, it’s important to stack the cards in your favor before getting started. That means preparing as much as possible for the day when you stop using drugs or alcohol and officially enter a substance abuse treatment program.
Having a good plan for what you will eat during your detox is an excellent start. This is overlooked by many people, as the focus tends to be simply on stopping substance use. That’s where it starts, of course, but if you don’t make good choices for your diet while in detox, it might be difficult to make it through to the other side.
The Crucial Role of a Healthy Diet During Drug or Alcohol Detox
To understand why diet is important in detox, it’s important to understand what substance use over an extended period does to the body. Prolonged drug or alcohol addiction can deplete the body of essential nutrients and damage the organs. The liver and digestive tract often take the brunt of the harm.
Then, when you stop using the substance, your body has to begin working harder to flush the toxins out of your system. Asking your body to do so much when it is already depleted and compromised is what leads to the various detox symptoms you will experience.
The Holistic Benefits of Putting Down Junk Food
Providing the body with healthy meals during this time is a step in the right direction. Those new healthy eating habits won’t eliminate your detox symptoms, of course, but they can gradually improve your health.
The benefits of proper nutrition in recovery (and in general!) include restoring balance to the system, reducing inflammation, improving sleep, and even mood regulation.
Important Nutrients to Target During the Detox Process
You probably have a general idea of where to start when trying to eat a healthy diet. Avoiding junk food is a good first step.
Staying away from processed foods as much as possible is always smart. But what specifically should you be eating to move away from a poor diet and toward a better one? The three categories below will help give your detox diet the right focus.
Protein
Getting enough protein during detox is critical. Protein serves many functions in the body, including supporting cell repair, stabilizing blood sugar, and even providing the amino acid necessary to rebuild brain chemistry. Having plenty of protein rich foods in your diet while in detox is a big step in the right direction.
Plenty of tasty options are available within this category. Eggs are an excellent starting point. They pack a significant protein punch in a small package. You can also use chicken and turkey for this purpose, as well as fish. Other choices include quality Greek yogurt products, lentils, and beans.
Healthy Fats
Another way to help your brain function and heal during the detox process is to provide it with plenty of healthy fats. Specifically, consuming omega-3 fatty acids will reduce inflammation and support cognitive health during this challenging time.
Just as fish are a good source of protein, they can also deliver these healthy fats. Salmon and tuna are two of the best choices for this purpose. But plant sources like avocados and olive oil also work well. Building a detox diet that regularly delivers a useful supply of healthy fats is another step in the right direction.
Complex Carbohydrates
In some diet circles, carbohydrates have a bad reputation. Plenty of people cut them out in an effort to lose weight. For detox purposes, however, it’s important to have enough quality carbs in your diet to restore and maintain energy.
The key here is to use carbs that offer nutritional value beyond a quick burst of energy. Complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes, brown rice, and quinoa are perfect for the job. These options will help to keep your energy levels up without the crash that comes along with many other sweet foods.
It Starts with Hydration
So far, we’ve been talking about the right foods to eat during detox, and that certainly is important. Perhaps even more important, however, is to stay hydrated. It’s common for people in detox to become dehydrated, which is only going to make it more difficult for the body to do what it needs to do at this time.
The starting point for staying hydrated, of course, is to drink plenty of water. Make it a habit even before detox starts to regularly sip on water throughout the day.
Good Old H2O: Crucial for Addiction Recovery
Avoid using sugary drinks to hydrate during detox, as those can make symptoms like anxiety and jitters even worse. Simple water, along with the balanced diet we’ve been discussing, will go a long way.
If you want to add nutritional value to your hydration, there are some options that can be considered. Coconut water is one popular choice.
Broth-based soups are another good one, as are herbal teas. Having a variety of choices available will help you stay hydrated without getting bored with only drinking water day after day.
Helping Your Liver Do its Job
You can think of your liver as the detox headquarters in your body. This organ is responsible for filtering things out of your system and getting rid of them. So, naturally, it’s going to work extremely hard during detox, and needs all the help it can get.
With that in mind, picking foods that will help your liver perform is an important step. Start with foods that are high in antioxidants. These fight free radicals and support the work your liver is doing during detox. Berries are an excellent pick in this category, as are green teas.
Also, look at foods that are high in sulfur compounds. These will help to improve enzyme function in detox, and fortunately, plenty of tasty options land in this category. Look at adding broccoli, onions, and garlic to your meals as a starting point.
Know What to Avoid
In many ways, building a well balanced diet in detox is as much about knowing what to avoid as it is about knowing what to choose. You can do your digestive system, and overall health during detox, a big favor by steering clear of foods that don’t have much to offer your nutritional needs.
We already mentioned that processed foods should be avoided whenever possible. It’s also smart to stay away from refined sugars where you can, and to cut back on caffeine – or avoid it altogether. Caffeine can lead to both anxiety and dehydration, two things that are particularly troublesome during detox.
It’s also best to avoid eating greasy or fried foods during this time. Such foods are hard for your body to digest and they can lead to nausea. You will probably be battling some nausea already as a natural side effect of being in detox, so you don’t want to make things worse by adding fried foods to the mix.
Build a Healthy Routine
Structure is critical in detox. Having a plan for how you will approach each day, and then executing on that plan consistently, will help you reach the other side and move into recovery. This is one of the many reasons that entering a formal medical detox is so smart – it gives you structure and intention for how you’ll climb this mountain.
Having a reliable routine built around eating is important, as well. For starters, eat regularly during this time. Skipping meals is not going to do your body (or your digestive health) any favors. It is working hard and needs to be supplied with the good stuff in order to keep moving forward.
Making a Routine and Scheduling the Right Times to Eat
While it’s good to eat regularly, try not to do it mindlessly. Plan exactly when you are going to eat, sit down and enjoy your food, and then move on with other tasks. Casually grazing on food during the day usually leads to some bad habits.
It’s also worthwhile to celebrate the wins you have along the way. Detox is hard and you are going to have difficult times in this journey. When you do something well, like eating a healthy meal that makes you feel good, congratulate yourself and prepare to do it again.
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Setting the Stage for Recovery Starts at Ingrained
Lasting recovery from drug addiction or alcohol addiction doesn’t happen by accident. Rather, recovery is the result of a carefully crafted plan including a number of different steps and variables. Nutritious meals can play an important role, along with many other keys.
Put all of the pieces in place by connecting with Ingrained Recovery today. You will immediately feel comfortable with our understanding team. We know how hard detoxing from substance abuse can be, but it gets easier when you have support.
Reach out to an admissions coordinator to talk about your situation and get started as soon as possible.