When you are recovering from alcoholism, your body has been starved of certain nutrients and overburdened with a variety of toxins. Your body is also likely less able to properly store and metabolise nutrients.

Additionally, you have probably become accustomed to an irregular eating schedule and poor diet. In recovery, focus on the healthy foods needed to restore your body.

You are already aware that alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs have the potential to damage virtually every cell in your body. The same is true of poor nutrition. Too little calcium and you can develop osteoporosis (brittle bones). Too little iron: anaemia. Not enough vitamin C: scurvy (with weakness, weight loss and heavy period bleeding). Vitamin B6, thiamine and folate are the most common nutrients lost with the abuse of alcohol.

If you are still drinking and feel constantly fatigued, I would suggest asking your doctor to give you a vitamin B12 injection. This will not cure you from drinking but it will help the peripheral neuropathy that is certain to propel you into a wheelchair if and when your legs stop functioning from peripheral neuropathy. We often equate this disease with diabetics but I’ve known many alcoholics who have ended up with early alcohol dementia and/or peripheral neuropathy, and they were not diabetics.

When you do not get enough of these important nutrients, there may be severe consequences, including anaemia and various neurological problems.

Excess alcohol consumption also leads to the loss of fat-soluble vitamins that are crucial for good health.

For instance, too much alcohol impacts the body’s ability to convert vitamin A to its active form because this process requires the same enzymes that metabolize alcohol. You should incorporate thiamine, B6 and folate into your daily diet as your body does not store them. Good sources of thiamine include vegetables, fruit, eggs and whole grain bread. Vitamin B6 is found in pork, poultry and fish in addition to many of the sources of thiamine.

Folate can be found in many green vegetables like broccoli, spinach or peas. Women should take calcium supplements as part of their recovery as heavy drinking increases the risk of osteoporosis – even women who don’t drink are at much higher risk for this bone weakening disease than men are.

Insufficient thiamine; beriberi (with damage to the nervous system). Too little beta-carotene and/or vitamin A: decreased night vision, blindness, dry skin, poor bone and tooth development and possibly an increased risk of cancer and heart disease. Insufficient Vitamin D; weak bones (rickets) in children, osteomalacia (soft bones) in adults plus an increased risk of certain types of cancer. Too little fibre: increased risk of some types of cancer. And so on, almost ad infinitum.

You can find vitamin D in some foods, including fortified milk and oily fishes, like herring; however, vitamin D primarily comes from exposure to the sun. The body only needs a small amount of vitamin D, but it is crucial for maintaining good health. Eating a variety of foods in recovery is a good way to ensure you are incorporating vitamin A into your diet as it is present in many different foods, including carrots, spinach and sweet potatoes.

Vitamin E is an important antioxidant that fights damaging free radical formation in the body and protects other necessary vitamins, is present in vegetable oil, as well as fruits, vegetables, nuts and some seeds and fortified cereals.

Alcoholism also leads to a shortage of beneficial amino acids, such as Tyrosine, the non-essential amino acid necessary to regulate your Dopamine Neurotransmitter. Why do you drink?   Because your Dopamine Neurotransmitter is low in its amino acid you may experience a constant feeling that you are worthless, useless and combined with a lack of satisfaction and your inability to feel accomplishments.

The Dopamine Neurotransmitter is responsible for the sense of satisfaction and reward. You can supplement your diet by taking Tyrosine Mood Food to help balance your brain chemistry. Better nutrition can restore the body’s needed amino acids. The effects of excessive alcohol consumption can also lead to a loss of carbohydrate storage in the body, which can result in sugar cravings.

Recovery alcoholics should keep sugar consumption in check to avoid further health complications and consider healthier sources for their sweet craving such as fruit.

Every alcoholic contemplating an attempt at sobriety needs to learn more about nutrition and supplements like Tyrosine to help them focus and achieve satisfaction without reaching for the bottle.

Magnesium Ultra Potent, to stabilize the electrical activity of the nervous system.

Glicemic Balance to help curb sugar cravings, sometimes a legacy from long term alcohol consumption.

LivaTone Plus to support phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification pathways, ensuring optimum detoxification of toxic substances.

L-Glutamine to support efficient brain function during the counselling process. L-Glutamine is an integral part of glutathione; the body’s more potent antioxidant and detoxifier.

 

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.