Can Diet Help Me Detox From Drugs? (Nope!)

Social media is obsessed with food detoxes, detox diets, and cleanses. With their rising popularity and the vocabulary crossover, people entering drug detox may feel confused about whether dieting will occur during a detox program.

Diets are not involved in or recommended during drug detox. They will not help individuals stop using substances.

In fact, they can harm people trying to get free from substance abuse.

Fad detox and diets are very different from drug & alcohol detox. Good nutrition is still important, however.

Diet Culture

When entering a drug rehab center, a person's focus should be on their physical and mental health. Despite the myth perpetuated by diet culture, health does not equal weight. Diet culture tells people that their body shape and weight should matter more than anything else. It places thinness as the most valuable thing a person can obtain.

Additionally, it pushes the concept that individuals can easily control their body shape and weight, even though this is not usually true. People engaging in diet culture often see fatness as a matter of willpower. This concept can emotionally damage people.

Diet culture is an especially dangerous notion to buy into when trying to heal from substance use disorder (SUD). When in treatment and recovery, many people gain weight. This weight gain is a natural reaction to the body rebalancing itself. Dieting focuses on the individual's weight gain rather than managing withdrawal symptoms and healing from SUD.

How Do Diets Work?

Diets restrict certain foods, nutrients, or calories. They implement strict rules around how much a person can eat and when. Over time, people who are dieting start to moralize food as “good” or “bad.” Many diets sway toward deprivation and starvation. Examples of this include juice cleanses and intermittent fasting. 

Not only are diets ineffective, but they also promote dangerous habits. They encourage fatphobic mentalities. Tracking food can become an obsession. It can lead to a negative self-image and self-esteem. Given that SUD causes low self-esteem as well, diets double down on the idea that a person is not good enough. 

Low self-esteem hurts anyone with SUD but especially impacts those who struggle with maintaining a healthy weight when seeking treatment. Diets promote behaviors like starvation, purging to get rid of “bad” foods, self-shaming, and excessive exercising. All of this can lead to eating disorders (classified as process addictions). Detox centers should not promote diets.

Nutritional Education

It is important to note that nutrition education during treatment differs from starting a diet. SUD often causes nutritional deficits or malnutrition. These deficits can impact the functioning of vital organs, including the brain, and energy levels. Nutritional education explains the connection between substance use and malnutrition. It allows patients to learn about the effects of nutrients and vitamins on bodily functions. It teaches skills like eating the rainbow and creating a balanced plate.

Good nutrition is essential in recovery.

The objective of this education is to optimize an individual's food intake, not restrict it. This type of education can help people going through treatment. Nutritional education tends to occur during rehabilitation, not detox.

Risk of Addiction Replacement

Early into sobriety, the brain searches for any activity that offers dopamine. Previously, substances filled this role. People may also feel a sense of loss when they pursue a substance-free life. They may experience depression or anxiety around the lack of control over their circumstances. This leaves room for addiction replacement. 

Addiction replacement is a person switching one addiction out for another. If a person starts dieting during detox, it can become a hyper fixation. It can create dangerous patterns, leading to eating disorders. Eating disorders (EDs) offer cravings, compulsions, dopamine releases, and a sense of control. They fall into the category of process addictions. A person could easily use ED as a replacement addiction.

Signs of Replacing SUD With ED

Though it is not recommended, if a person engages in dieting during detox, they should remain aware of the symptoms of addiction replacement and inform their doctors. They may want an accountability buddy to keep themselves in check. That way, if they do start showing ED symptoms, they can appropriately address it with their medical team. Symptoms of ED include:

• Constantly thinking about food and disordered eating
• Skipping meals frequently
• Feeling uncomfortable eating in front of others
• Withdrawing socially
• Getting immediate gratification from food-related behaviors
• Intense mood swings
• Fear of gaining weight
• Food choices ease negative emotions
• Low blood pressure and pulse
• Dramatic changes in food intake
• Visiting the bathroom right after eating
• Stressing if unable to control food intake
• Disordered eating becoming a “must”

No matter how safe a person tries to be, it is still better not to diet during detox. Unless it is a pre-established meal plan implemented for a medical condition, dieting simply is not a good idea when healing from SUD. There is too high a risk of dieting causing harm.

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Diets aren't helpful during drug detox. They can harm a person and promote the development of eating disorders.

Rather than attending a facility that encourages unhealthy food behaviors, people seeking a drug detox center should look for facilities that use evidence-based practices. This can include medication-assisted treatment, (MAT) 24-hour support, and psychotherapy. A good detox center will help you plan for your next steps in treatment. If you want to pursue a substance-free life, you don't have to go through everything alone.

DetoxNearMe.com can help you find a qualified facility. We work with the best care providers in the United States and can accommodate requests for local or distance placement. We're here to help you feel confident in your treatment choices.

When you're ready to take the first step, start searching DetoxNearMe.com today!