Nutrition in Recovery
Research has found that balancing blood sugar is a critical part of staying _____.
What is sober?
When blood sugar crashes, your brain signals you to look for a way to raise it and boost energy levels. That can trigger cravings.
Eating enough of the macronutrient _____ will help your body to produce neurotransmitters which regulate many necessary functions, including: heart rate, breathing, sleep cycles, digestion, appetite, muscle movement, mood, and concentration.
What is protein?
Neurotransmitters are created from amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein.
The type of food plan or _____ that works well for each person depends on the needs of the person.
What is diet?
Food plans should be individualized to meet the individual's nutritional needs and preferences, which may change over time or under different circumstances. But all food plans should include plenty of unprocessed, whole foods including fruits and vegetables.
Macronutrients are eaten in large amounts and include the primary building blocks of your diet — protein, carbohydrates, and ___— which provide your body with energy.
What is fat?
Vitamins and minerals are micronutrients, and small doses go a long way.
Lifestyle practices such as meditation, yoga and other exercise, music therapy, and acupuncture can help promote dopamine release, which helps to regulate your _____.
What is mood?
According to Walsh (2011), all too often we have “underestimated the importance of lifestyle for mental health.” In reality, research has shown that unhealthy lifestyles can be factors leading to or worsening disorders and that healthy lifestyles can help treat disorders and improve overall physical and mental well-being.
To maintain healthy blood sugar levels and reduce cravings, it's important to increase your fiber content by eating vegetables, to eat plenty of foods that don't cause your blood sugar to spike, such as healthy fats and protein, and to stay _____ by drinking plenty of water.
What is hydrated?
When you don't drink enough water, the glucose in your bloodstream becomes more concentrated. And that leads to higher blood sugar levels. Both mild and severe dehydration can have a notable impact on blood sugar levels.
Eating higher protein diets can help increase the number of dopamine receptors in the _____.
What is the brain?
Dopamine has been called the "motivation molecule" because it boosts drive, focus, and concentration.
Eating at least 10 portions of fruits and _____ per day has been shown to reduce cholesterol levels and blood pressure, boost the health of our blood vessels and immune system, and reduce the risks for heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
What are vegetables?
Try including vegetables in your breakfast by making veggie omelets or frittatas, and include carrot sticks and celery with almond or peanut butter for snacks.
Of the three macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) the one that is most often over-consumed is _______.
What is carbohydrate?
We tend to overeat refined carbohydrates. And because they are low in fiber and digested quickly, eating refined carbs can cause major swings in blood sugar levels. This can contribute to overeating.
Try to include complex carbohydrates such as tubers (sweet potatoes, white, red, or purple potatoes, carrots, yucca, daikon, tigernut), whole grains (brown or wild rice, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, barley, oats, spelt, rye), chickpeas, winter squash, fruit, beans, lentils, green peas, etc.
Mood disorders such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder are impacted by the ____ we eat and our lifestyle choices.
What is foods?
To boost your mental health, focus on eating plenty of fruits and vegetables along with foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon. Dark green leafy vegetables in particular are brain protective. Nuts, seeds and legumes, such as beans and lentils, are also excellent brain foods.
When you abuse alcohol and drugs, you typically: consume less food, choose foods that are less nutritious and/or may skip meals, increase the speed at which your body uses up energy, increase the loss of nutrients through vomiting and diarrhea, and damage your ___ so that it can’t absorb the nutrients in food properly.
What is gut?
In the early stages of detoxification and recovery, you need to introduce meals slowly, since your body might not be used to digesting food. It’s a good idea to start off with small and frequent meals.
The neurotransmitter serotonin is often called the body's natural "feel-good" chemical because it helps to regulate your ____.
What is mood?
Eight foods that naturally boost serotonin are: Salmon, Poultry (including chicken, turkey, and goose), Eggs, Spinach, Seeds, Milk, Soy products, and Nuts.
Whole, fresh, real, unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, roots, tubers, whole grains and legumes, and natural meats, fish, and seafood should be included at every ____ and for snacks.
What is meal?
The one consistent finding from a 2014 analysis by Yale University was that “a diet of minimally processed foods close to nature, predominantly plants, is decisively associated with health promotion and disease prevention”.
The macronutrient ____ is made up of building blocks called amino acids that the body uses to make dopamine and other neurotransmitters.
What is protein?
The supply of essential amino acids are often lacking in people who have unhealthy eating habits.
Daily practices for improving health and decreasing risks for chronic diseases include eating a diet of unprocessed, whole foods, exercising and moving your body throughout the day, managing your stress levels, and eliminating (or seriously reducing) ____ in frequently consumed foods and soft drinks.
What is sugar?
Consumption of added sugars has been implicated in increased risk of a variety of chronic diseases including obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease as well as cognitive decline and even some cancers.
Persistent drug or alcohol abuse and a lack of healthy ____ will quickly lead to malnutrition.
What is food?
Malnutrition can manifest in many ways, such as: Low body temperature, Depression, Cognitive impairment, Muscle degeneration, Heart rate inconsistencies, Suppressed immune system, Vitamin deficiencies and Electrolyte imbalances.
_____, which is often an ingredient in processed foods and sweet treats, lights up the pleasure center of the brain by triggering the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
What is sugar?
Sugar can disrupt dopamine levels as the brain becomes used to high levels of sugar. In fact, both the gene expression and availability of dopamine receptors can be altered in certain areas of the brain from consuming too much sugar over a long period of time.
There are thousands of phytonutrients in plant foods that come in every ____ so, to ensure that you are getting enough of these important nutrients, eat a rainbow every day.
What is color?
Some benefits of phytonutrients include anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, support cell protection, immune health, liver, heart, brain, and other organs, hormone and reproductive health, GI health and skin, cognition, and many other bodily functions.
Blood sugar levels can be increased by consuming sugar and processed or simple ______.
What are carbohydrates?
Unlike simple carbs, complex carbohydrates are digested slowly, causing a gradual rise in blood sugar. They’re usually high in nutrients and fiber, which can help prevent serious disease, aid with weight-loss, and improve your energy levels.
Nicotine increases your blood sugar levels and makes them harder to manage, so if you ____, you’re 30% to 40% more likely to get type 2 diabetes than people who don’t.
What is smoke?
Nicotine is a dangerous and highly addictive chemical. It can cause an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, flow of blood to the heart and a narrowing of the arteries (vessels that carry blood). Nicotine may also contribute to the hardening of the arterial walls, which in turn, may lead to a heart attack.
As your body begins to heal from the inside out, those in recovery will start to feel the differences that a healthy ___ can support including: Improved mood, increased energy, better memory, stronger immune system, and reduced risk of disease.
What is diet?
In the first year after you stop using alcohol or drugs, your nutrition needs are higher than normal. You need to make sure you’re feeding your body good food on a daily basis.
Researchers hypothesize that _____ levels of neurotransmitters can lead to symptoms such as: feelings of sadness, helplessness, worthlessness or emptiness, overeating or a loss of appetite, and insomnia or sleeping too much.
What is insufficient/low?
Top foods that are rich in compounds that nourish neurons, boost neurotransmitter production, reduce inflammation, and protect against neural degeneration: curry, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, walnuts, crab, garbanzo beans, buckwheat, red meat, blueberries.
When eating out, try to select fresh foods like salads, steamed veggies, baked potatoes, and fruit, and order your meats baked or broiled instead of ____.
What is fried?
As many as 1 in 3 Americans eats fast food at least once a day, and most of those fast food meals include fried foods. Research has linked higher consumption of fried foods to Type 2 diabetes and heart problems, but studies also show eating fried foods every day could shorten your life.
The only macronutrient that does not raise blood sugar is ____.
What is fat?
Dietary fat is not broken down into glucose like carbohydrates (and sometimes protein). Instead, it’s broken down into fatty acids. Without those fatty acids from your diet, your body would eventually fail to function. You need fat in your diet in order to: Absorb vitamins A, D, E, & K, protect your organs, and maintain healthy growth of skin, hair, and nails.
* When you eat a large serving of dietary fat in one sitting, it will slow down the digestion of the carbohydrates in your meal. For people who take insulin, this can be a tricky thing to manage, because it changes the timing of when your body needs insulin for that meal.
A vital, often neglected, component of every person’s overall health and well-being, ____ enables the body to repair and to be fit and ready for another day.
What is sleep?
Getting adequate rest may also help prevent excess weight gain, heart disease, and increased illness duration.