Most drug treatment facilities incorporate 12-step programs, therapy, and addiction education into their clients’ daily regimens. These methods meet the client’s psychological and emotional requirements and are essential for rehabilitation. Let’s look at some foods that you need to avoid as a recovering addict.

The client’s bodily demands, on the other hand, are critical and should not be disregarded. 

Recovery programs that take a holistic approach to recovery, feeding the mind, body, and soul, are the most successful.

An intensive outpatient treatment for drug and alcohol addiction includes all of the healthy things we should consume. We’re also given a list of items to stay away from. However, these lists might occasionally conflict, making it difficult to decide what to eat. 

5 Foods To Avoid In Addiction Recovery

You must avoid some foods in addiction recovery; else, your recovery journey will get hampered drastically. Take a look at this list and learn why you should avoid these foods:

1: Fats

Fats have always got a bad reputation, but the opinion is certainly true in addiction recovery because refined fats and hydrogenated fats slow gastric emptying, reducing the rate of glucose entering the bloodstream.

Although saturated and unsaturated fats are good for the body, you should not consume too much of them when you are in recovery.

Margarine and hydrogenated oils are the obvious food items to avoid in this context. But, you could always head back to intaking flax seed, cornflower, butter, corn oil, olive oil, and coconut oil.

The former contains refined and hydrogenated fats, while the latter contain saturated and unsaturated fats. 

2: Sugar

People in recovery are often diagnosed with low blood sugar, which is why they crave sugar as a replacement for the substance they have been abusing so far.

When people abuse a substance, it releases dopamine in their brain’s reward center. But, when they stop taking the drugs and turn to sugary foods instead, it creates the same level of dopamine, affecting their health wellbeing ratio.

Some people choose to ingest refined sugar, which is even a worse alternative because it depletes the body of essential minerals and multivitamins.

Women must be more cautious towards this substance because if their bodies are depleted of calcium, they run the risk of developing osteoporosis. 

3: Caffeine

Avoiding caffeine can ensure that your body gets ample time to recover. People often turn towards caffeine when they stop addiction because apparently, that’s not harmful.

Well, we agree that drinking caffeine is not as harmful as being overly reliant on drugs and alcohol but depending on any substance is not good for your physical health.

When you walk into an AA meeting, you see plenty of people with coffee mugs in their hands. But, too much caffeine consumption can weaken the immune system, cause exhaustion, dizziness, low blood pressure, blacking out while standing up, and lightheadedness.

Hence, you should not drink caffeinated beverages when you are in recovery.

4: White Flour

White flour is one of the few highly processed foods, and the body breaks it down like sugar. However, since it contains no fiber, your body faces difficulty digesting it.

Most importantly, your body is already weak when it is in recovery, and putting too much pressure on your digestive tract won’t be the right thing to do during this time.

White flour can slow down your metabolism rate ad cause headaches, stress, constipation, and migraine. It can also cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, which your body may not be able to handle during recovery.

If you want a replacement of white flour, the whole grains are always there to take place.

5: Additives & Preservatives

These foods are not food but are added to many foods, and if you want to speed up your recovery journey, you must avoid food containing additives and preservatives.

Artificial sweeteners, monosodium glutamate, butylated hydroxyanisole, and butylated hydroxytoluene are some additives that you should avoid. You will find them in cold drinks, cereals, chips, and cookies to add a fresh taste.

There are also preservatives such as phosphate, often found in baked items, meat, and fast foods, which you should avoid because it is a well-known agent of causing cancer.

When you are in recovery, your immune system is already weak, and it won’t be wise to have the additives to make you more vulnerable to certain diseases. 

Which Foods Are Good For Addiction Recovery?

Now that you have understood which foods to avoid, you must be looking for some ideas to make a healthy diet chart. Let’s take a look at our suggestions here:

  • You should drink plenty of water because hydration is essential in addiction recovery. Your body runs the risk of losing all the electrolytes to function, and if you don’t have enough of it, you will blackout.
  • Dark green vegetables and fruits are also essential to include in a diet chart because they are excellent sources of beta carotene, folic acid, and vitamin B6. Unfortunately, these nutrients are lacking in alcoholics, so you must eat them when you recover.
  • Protein and complex carbs are necessary to eat in recovery because proteins are great sources of vitamin B6 and carbs contain fiber to smooth your digestive problems. Bread, whole grains, red meat, salmon, pork are some of the food items containing these nutrients, so be absolutely sure to eat them in recovery.
  • Last but not least, dairy is essential to consume in addiction recovery. One serving of yogurt or milk can make your bones strong and strengthen your immunity system so that your body operates nice and easily when it is going through withdrawal symptoms. They also contain vitamin B2 and calcium that promote your digestive health.

Putting It All Together

Are you still with us?

If YES, it means you have found out which foods to avoid and which ones to eat during addiction recovery.

Now, you can make a healthy diet chart and stick to it to speed up the recovery process. For further help, get in touch with us in the comment section below.