Written By: Katie Schipper
The Benefits of Good Nutrition in Your Recovery
Good Nutrition is a Crucial Component of Healthy Living
Anyone who’s been in recovery knows that early-sobriety can feel like a barrage of constant suggestions and commentary on what you’re doing, what you could be doing, and what you should be doing. It’s overwhelming!
To be newly sober, however, is to admit that your way wasn’t working and that maybe someone could make your path a little smoother. Hence the sponsor, the sober supports, the IOP, the therapist, the halfway house, and so on.
Believe it or not, those people aren’t put in your life to tell you what to do. They’re here to help you see there really is a different way to live. On that note, a crucial part of healthy living is good nutrition.
This is often overlooked in early-recovery. But, for someone whose primary focus is recovery from addiction, the value of nutrition can’t be underestimated.
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Nutrition and Recovery
A lot of archaic AA suggestions advise eating sugar and chocolate to stave off alcohol cravings. While candy and treats certainly have their value, that’s about as far as nutrition in recovery went during the writing of the most AA literature. The reality’s much different than those old suggestions.
For someone who’s getting sober, most nutritionists would probably recommend maintaining your current diet for about a year. That is to say, don’t make any major changes to your diet. For example, if you ate meat while you were using, don’t get sober and become a vegetarian!
That said, most newly sober people need to make some adjustments to diet right away. The problem with drugs and alcohol is that when abused, they pair very poorly with healthy eating and good nutrition. We live in a time when the connection between what we put in our bodies and how we feel, behave, and live is being made. There’s a direct and immediate correlation between nutrition and overall well-being.
On a basic level, young women in recovery should make a point of considering the way they eat. The following is, of course, secondary to any instruction given by a therapist or nutritionist at a treatment center.
