Detoxification is the first stage of recovering from excessive alcohol use, and it’s an uncomfortable, challenging, and overwhelming process. For patients who experience overpowering physical and mental dependence on alcohol, detox is crucial in overcoming addiction and resuming normal life. It helps rid the body of all toxins to ensure your brain and body can function normally without substance use.
The alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) is a common side-effect for patients recovering from alcohol use disorders and detoxifying their bodies. AWS symptoms are intense and debilitating and often discourage patients from making healthy choices. However, experts observe that making healthy dietary adjustments can reduce the intensity of withdrawal symptoms and boost detox outcomes.
Maintaining a nutritious and well-balanced diet will ease your detox journey and decrease the risk of relapsing significantly. It’s crucial to understand how alcohol impacts the human brain and body and how dietary choices help correct the damage. Heavy alcohol consumption makes you neglect your diet, and as your body’s nutritional needs go unmet, it can further rely on alcohol and other intoxicating substances as a substitute.
Embracing healthy and nutritious foods can help you overcome the loss of nutrients and maintain a healthy mind and body. Keep reading to explore impactful dietary adjustments to ease alcohol withdrawal symptoms with healing nutrients.
1. Eating Leafy Green Vegetables
Leafy green vegetables are one of the most nutritious and beneficial foods to encourage natural body detoxification. Green vegetables work wonders at flushing out toxins and cleansing the body’s palette free of all impurities and harmful compounds. Adding leafy green veggies to your daily diet will help you flush out alcohol-related toxins and detox your mind and body.
However, if you struggle with nausea, vomiting, and severe digestive symptoms, vegetables alone won’t help. It’s wise to seek medical help from certified alcohol withdrawal services to initiate a comprehensive treatment to address your withdrawal symptoms. The symptoms and their intensity vary from person to person, and only a medical professional can offer the right diagnosis. Pharmaceutical interventions are necessary, and dietary changes are never enough when dealing with physically challenging symptoms.
You can add green vegetables to the dietary changes recommended by your doctor to improve treatment outcomes. For example, Romaine lettuce, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, and Brussels Sprouts are rich sources of vitamin B – an essential nutrient to overcome alcohol withdrawals. Heavy alcohol consumption leads to vitamin B deficiencies, and consuming green veggies will help rebuild your vitamin B scores.
Leafy greens, such as swiss chard, bok choy, spinach, and parsley, are rich in L-glutamine – a nutrient that curbs sugar cravings. Spinach and parsley are also effective at reducing alcohol cravings, and you can add them to your smoothies and juices. It’s wise to consume raw vegetables to preserve L-glutamine as cooking often destroys the nutrient.
2. Embracing Protein-Rich Foods
Alcohol use and heavy drinking are largely associated with protein deficiencies, resulting in weakened muscles. Patients with alcohol use disorders often complain of muscle mass loss, body aches, and overwhelming fatigue. While there are many reasons behind such symptoms, protein deficiencies are noteworthy causes of perpetual exhaustion and muscular weakness.
Overcoming your protein deficiency is crucial in overcoming withdrawal symptoms and building muscular strength. Most people turn to exercise and gym workouts to ease the detoxification process and overcome withdrawals with a healthy lifestyle. But they struggle to perform well during workouts given the weakened state of their bodily muscles.
If that’s a struggle you can relate to, it’s time to embark on a protein-rich diet. You see, protein is the building block to energize and build muscle groups throughout the body. You can boost your physical fitness, stamina, and agility by adding more protein sources to your diet. Meats like poultry, turkey, and fatty fish are excellent dietary choices to boost your protein consumption.
Eggs, nuts, and seeds are rich in protein and other essential nutrients, like magnesium, iron, zinc, and vitamins B and E. Alcohol abuse often leads to mineral and vitamin deficiencies, and picking well-rounded protein sources will help you replenish your nutrient stores.
3. Get All Your Vitamins
Vitamins are essential in regulating bodily systems, boosting brain functioning and maintaining good health. People with alcohol dependency often experience vitamin deficiencies as their body discourages them from making healthy eating choices and reducing its ability to absorb vitamins. We advise making a vitamin chart with dietary recommendations to effectively replenish your body’s vitamin stores.
First, you need to focus on the B vitamins, such as vitamin B-12, folic acid, and thiamin. You can obtain rich concentrations of thiamin from beans, eggs, nuts, peas, and fortified cereals. Leafy greens and fruits are packed with folic acid – an essential vitamin needed to produce healthy cells. And milk, eggs, and meats are rich in vitamin B-12.
Once you’ve covered the B vitamins, it’s time to turn your attention to vitamins A, D, E, and K. The human body needs rich supplies of vitamin A to regulate immunity and eye health. Adding fish, sweet potatoes, carrots, and milk to your daily diet will replenish your body with an adequate supply of vitamin A. Fatty fish, fortified milk, and sunbathing will enrich your bones with the strengthening goodness of vitamin D.
You can obtain vitamin E from almonds, leafy green vegetables, and supplements to protect cells from oxidative damage. Vitamin K plays a crucial role in blood circulation and is found in olive oil and leafy green vegetables. Making a dietary chart is wise to track your consumption and ensure your daily diet packs a hefty supply of essential vitamins.
4. Overcoming Mineral Deficiencies
Minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, and zinc regulate health, strengthen bone structure and promote cognitive development. Regular drinking reduces our consumption of mineral-rich foods, resulting in glaring and damaging deficiencies. It’s crucial to add more minerals to your daily diet, especially magnesium and calcium.
Leafy green vegetables and dairy products will help you replenish your body with rich concentrations of bones-strengthening calcium. You can obtain high-quality magnesium from fruits, nuts, and whole grains. The body needs rich supplies of iron to promote healthy blood circulation and an adequate supply of oxygen to all organs. You can obtain high doses of iron from spinach, beans, raisins, and meat.
Final Thoughts
Have you noticed how leafy greens pack up almost every nutrient, vitamin and mineral the body needs for effective functioning? Leafy green vegetables are superfoods and potent powerhouses of essential nutrients, and they are so incredibly easy to consume. For instance, you can toss raw veggies into a salad bowl or blend them in a smoothie.
We advise journaling your eating habits and preparing a weekly diet plan to regulate your nutrient consumption.