You likely do not first think of eating well when it comes to addiction recovery. But the reality of your drug and alcohol abuse is that the addiction took a toll on your body. You have to rebuild your physical wellness, as you work on ending your substance abuse and maintaining a healthier life. This is why nutrition therapy is an integral part of your addiction treatment.

Why You Need Nutrition Therapy

Someone making a grocery list as part of nutrition therapy at Beaches RecoveryHealthy foods are your physical building blocks. Without eating well, your body does not have what it needs to look and feel its best. And during drug and alcohol abuse, your body suffers poor nutrition and digestion problems. You did not receive enough vitamins, essential amino acids, minerals or good fats.

All of these nutritional deficiencies take a toll on your health and wellness. Your mental functioning also suffered from the lack of nutrients. You can tell you neglected to feed your body what it needs, both when you look in the mirror and by how you feel. The good news is that nutrition therapy turns this around.

Nutrition therapy is a holistic therapy at addiction rehab, one using a simple diet to help you recover from your substance abuse. In this therapy, a dietitian, nutritionist or medical doctor monitors what you eat each day. The individualized diet forms around your health history, physical exam, dietary background, and other personal factors.

This therapy works to improve your physical condition while also correcting your addiction problem with healthy foods. When you feel better, you make better decisions and healthier choices for your life. For far too long your nutrition took a back seat to your drugs or alcohol. So this therapy works to correct that long-term neglect while teaching you new nutritional skills.

Of course, proper nutrition goes hand-in-hand with physical fitness. In a quality rehab, you work to achieve better fitness, at the same time as you rebuild your diet and learn to abstain from your addictive substance. Nutrition therapy also supports your other therapies as one part of a well-developed treatment plan.

How Did Addiction Disrupt My Nutrition?

Drug or alcohol abuse affected your nutrition and diet in many ways. Some of those ways include skipping meals or forgetting to eat. The substances you used suppressed your appetite or led you to eat poorly, without giving thought to what you put into your body. Your drugs came first with your diet taking a back seat to the cycle of addiction.

Many people suffer undernourishment after not eating well for an extended period of time. You possibly overate during your substance abuse or ate only fast food for its quick convenience. Perhaps you suffer from obesity and the health conditions that go with that problem.

Substance abuse also damages your heart, liver, pancreas, intestines, and stomach. This means your body no longer absorbs nutrients as it should, properly digests the foods you eat, or stores what it needs for energy. You impaired your immune system and made your defenses weak to potential illnesses and infections. These are only a few of the problems people just like you suffer when engaged in addiction.

Nutrition and Other Therapies You Need in Rehab

For healthy recovery, you need a wide range of therapies. Nutrition therapy is one of these, with other vital therapies including:

At Beaches Recovery in Jacksonville, Florida you receive these therapies and much more. Beaches Recovery provides a full array of treatment programs, including residential, intensive outpatient, PHP, and outpatient treatment. Beaches also helps you build your new life in better health, setting you up for physical and mental wellness by giving you the nutritional guidance you need.

Call Beaches Recovery today at 866.605.0532. Learn about Beaches’ nutrition therapy and other addiction therapy programs as part of a full continuum of care. At Beaches Recovery your better life begins. Call now.