Nutrition education can help support a variety of needs for addiction patients. However, many people don’t realize that learning how to eat properly can also help with therapeutic programs. The basic components of any nutrition therapy program include knowing how certain foods impact your weight, medical conditions, and mental health state. However, patients and their caregivers may want to consider how and why these educational programs create long-term impacts on therapy outcomes. So what are nutrition education programs? Additionally, what should caregivers do to successfully include nutrition education in nutritional therapy?
Nutrition education is a critical part of the recovery process for clients at Crestview Recovery. Our team combines evidence-based therapies with holistic treatments, such as nutritional therapy, to support each person’s recovery. With the help of nutritional education, our clients can begin a more complete recovery journey. To learn how this treatment option can support your journey to sobriety, please call Crestview Recovery today at 866.262.0531 or use our convenient online form.
What Is Nutrition Education?
Nutrition education, by its most basic definition, is a set of learning experiences that help individuals internalize appropriate eating habits, routines, and behaviors that lead to improved mental or clinical outcomes.
It’s important to keep in mind that good nutrition often declines as addiction takes a greater hold on people. Consequently, it is not only the addiction that injures the body but also the accumulating effects of poor nutrition. To create the best possible recovery process, it’s important to address other needs of patients, such as good nutrition.
When creating an educational program to improve patient nutrition, it helps to establish a particular set of goals on a patient-by-patient basis. For example, some patients may need to improve their diet in order to lower high blood pressure and other chronic disease indicators.
Goals of Nutrition Education
A few goals that are effective for patients of all ages include:
- Creating positive attitudes about food to encourage healthy dieting — This is particularly important for some addictions where the loss of appetite has become a chronic problem.
- Improving the consumption of fruits and vegetables steadily — For some patients, this may literally be their first acquittance with genuinely healthy food choices. Certain patients are literally trying to overcome a lifetime of poor eating.
- Increasing physical activity and setting weight-loss goals in addition to new food types — You know the old saying: healthy body, healthy mind.
- Adding new meal types and restricting harmful foods —We will work with clients to improve medical conditions like obesity, high blood pressure, metabolic issues, and other nutrition-related issues.
- Learning new skills — We help clients learn how to purchase affordable and healthy food options and how to budget for healthier meals.
As you can see, nutritional education covers a lot of bases in terms of wellness, health, and dieting improvements. But it is important to know how nutritional education ties into nutritional therapy.
How Does Nutrition Education Support Nutritional Therapy?
Nutritional education is a major part of any nutritional therapy program for patients. However, it is not the only part of a truly holistic therapy program.
Nutritional therapy includes patient education, physical activity, and behavioral intervention to improve overall wellbeing. Most patients that have trouble controlling diet or weight may likely qualify to participate in a nutritional therapy program. A therapy program can help to address underlying issues, including:
- Patients who are underweight
- Patients who are overweight
- Those who struggle with self-esteem related to nutritional issues
- Other mental health factors
Benefits of Nutritional Therapy During Addiction Treatment
Addressing behavioral-related nutrition issues requires a strong nutritional education program for a number of reasons:
- Fact and evidence-based nutritional education helps patients redefine logical dietary decisions
- Learning new types of information about food and diet can put perspective on a person’s current nutritional struggles
- Creating better lifestyle choices, including more frequent fitness and physical activity, requires proper nutrition to maximize results
- Nutritional therapy can help to reduce the cravings and withdrawal symptoms associated with substance use
- The physical effects of addiction have a profound effect on nutrition, and nutritional therapy helps to restore balance
- Providing adequate nourishment during treatment will also increase an addict’s ability to focus and concentrate, as well as their overall energy level
- By following a balanced diet, patients can reduce the effects of their cravings and withdrawals
Nutritional therapy also helps to boost an addicted individual’s immune system, which can be compromised due to substance use. A strong immune system leads to better overall health and facilitates more successful treatment outcomes. Aside from physical benefits, nutritional therapy in addiction treatment can help to improve mental health.
In addition, patients who have a balanced nutrient-rich diet are more likely to experience better moods and higher levels of motivation, which are key components of recovery. Finally, nutritional therapy provides a sense of safety and stability as patients find comfort in following a regimented eating plan that is not associated with substance use.
Find Nutritional Therapy Services in Portland at Crestview Recovery
Patients who want to either explore nutritional education near Portland or see if they can add on to other wellness programs may wish to contact Crestview Recovery. At Crestview Recovery, we offer nutritional therapy services in coordination with addiction treatment and mental health treatment. We work with each client so that they get the care and support that they need to fully recover from addiction. To that end, we offer a range of evidence-based treatment options as well as holistic treatment options, such as:
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
- Mindfulness meditation therapy
- Family therapy
- Trauma therapy
If you’re struggling with addiction and think that you could benefit from nutritional therapy services, the experts at Crestview Recovery are here to help. If you have more questions about nutritional therapy, please call us directly at 866.262.0531.
Since 2016, Dr. Merle Williamson, a graduate of Oregon Health Sciences University, has been the Medical Director at Crestview Recovery, bringing a rich background in addiction medicine from his time at Hazelden Treatment Center. He oversees outpatient drug and alcohol treatments, providing medical care, setting policies, detox protocols, and quality assurance measures. Before specializing in addiction medicine, he spent 25 years in anesthesiology, serving as Chair of Hospital Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and Chief of Anesthesia at Kaiser Permanente. This experience gives him a unique perspective on treating prescription drug addiction.
