Author: John Carter
Alcohol Detox Diet Eating Healthy During Alcohol Withdrawal
They can help the body repair damage caused by alcohol abuse by providing antioxidants, which fight against harmful free radicals produced during excessive alcohol consumption. They can also provide several important nutrients often deficient in those with alcohol addiction. A diet of carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats is important in alcohol recovery. This diet will give you the necessary vitamins and nutrients to build your body’s stores. For people experiencing alcohol withdrawal symptoms, eating can prove difficult. But nourishment is important once a physician deems an individual stable enough to eat.
- Alcoholism is a disease that you can overcome with evidence-based treatment.
- Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form new connections and rearrange old ones, typically in response to injury, disease or a change in the environment.
- When I’m consistently eating a lot of fat from whole food sources, my sense of well-being soars.
- You can also drink decaffeinated teas and fruit or vegetable juices.
- It’s an essential part of a healthy diet for alcoholics who are in recovery.
A lack of vitamin B9 can trigger anemia and make you weak, tired, and moody. You might also get headaches and have a hard time focusing. Folic acid is in foods like enriched bread, flour, cornmeal, pasta, rice, and breakfast cereals. Veggies, fruits, fruit juices, nuts, beans, and peas naturally have folate. When you drink too much, you’re more likely to eat foods that are high in added sugar, salt, and saturated fat.
Nutritional supplements can play an important role in alcohol recovery, assisting in replenishing the nutrients often depleted due to alcohol misuse. Regular supplementation of these vitamins may assist in restoring cognitive function and general vitality. Whole grains, such as oats, brown rice and quinoa, are essential to a recovery diet as they are rich in B vitamins and fiber. B vitamins are important in detoxification and energy production. Alcohol depletes these vitamins, so replenishing them is key to recovery.
Making good nutritional food choices as you recover from alcohol addiction will help you succeed in your recovery journey.
Our ancestors instinctively knew that organ meats have more nutrient density than the popular cuts that we eat today. I eat grass-fed beef liver jerky or bison liver sautéed with onions. I prefer to use coconut milk instead of regular milk because it contains no sugar; milk contains a hefty dose of lactose. While I do not have any sensitivity to dairy, I’ve noticed that drinking lots of milk causes me to gain weight.
It eases inflammation and protects the thin layer that surrounds your brain cells, called the cell membrane. Canola, olive, safflower, sesame, and sunflower oils are good sources of healthy fats. Alcohol and poor eating can stop your liver from releasing glucose into your blood. This can lead to low blood sugar, also known as hypoglycemia.
Alcohol Detox Diet: What Are the Best Foods?
Making sure to eat protein during your detox and recovery can help to replete your stores of these important nutrients. This may include things like an IV drip for hydration or vitamins to keep levels of both stable throughout withdrawal, leading to a smoother transition to treatment. As you’ve likely heard, heavy alcohol consumption can be damaging to your brain. And since your brain needs certain fatty acids to function optimally, eating enough good fats is key in a healthy diet for alcoholics. So, you’ve quit drinking—and perhaps you’re already starting to feel the health benefits.
Organ meats, known to contain more micronutrients than any vegetable, give me an energy rush and euphoria! I may have to check back into rehab and tell them that I’ve been getting high on liver. Good nutrition during recovery is important; however, good dietary practices rarely happen accidentally. A good plan is essential to maximize the benefit of changing your diet and stick with the changes during recovery.
If you have any questions about alcohol recovery diets, feel free to leave them in the comment box below. Too many people focus solely on psychological healing, only to be brought down later by biochemical imbalances caused by alcohol that can linger for months or years. To help you visualize these tips in action, I’ve created a partial list of foods below based on my own experience recovering from alcoholism and staying sober.
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They are likely brand names that you can easily find in stores or on Google. Avocados, olive oil, nuts, salmon, and grass-fed beef are my personal favorite sources of good fats. (Be sure to check out the Kitchenistic review of “avocado savers.”) People who eat a lot of these foods every day rarely have cravings for carbs and junk. Magnesium can help reduce alcohol cravings and improve sleep quality, both common problems during alcohol withdrawal.
Stay Away from Processed Foods
During this period, when your body is adjusting and healing, it is important to have a healthy diet and nutrition to support you in your new alcohol-free lifestyle. Eating disorders and substance use disorders share multiple similarities in displayed behavior. The escalation of substance abuse comes with increasingly severe cravings and the inability to control consumption despite building negative consequences. In the same manner, those who have bulimia and binge eating disorders experience extreme cravings for food and feel a loss of control when over-consuming.
This can occur when an alcohol addiction becomes so preoccupying that the person with the addiction fails to eat like they should, getting most of their calories from alcohol. Alcohol does not provide essential nutrients, and malnutrition can develop. This will help support your recovery and ease your transition to a newly sober life. Macronutrients are those your body needs in large amounts each day to function.
You may feel fatigued or toxified, struggle with food cravings, or not feel like eating much at all. And if you established unhealthy eating habits while drinking alcohol, they may suddenly be very obvious. Instead of weight gain, those with a very severe alcohol addiction may experience malnutrition.
Can your body heal if you stop drinking?
Juices and sodas account for most of the sugar consumed in the modern diet. These can be replaced with low-sugar kombuchas, unsweetened iced tea, or sparkling waters with natural flavors. As you feel more stable and watch the pounds shed from your mid-section, you’ll stop missing sugary beverages forever.