The Benefits Of Nutrition Therapy For Abuse Survivors
Trauma, brought about by an abusive experience, does significant damage to the digestive system. It could lead to a condition known as leaky gut. This happens when the cells lining the small intestine separate, causing proteins that don’t belong there to leak into the bloodstream. This causes inflammation in the body, including the brain. Aside from psychotherapy, there is a new discovery that can help abuse survivors get through this, and that is by being mindful of food consumption. Here’s how nutrition therapy can benefit abuse survivors.
The role of nutrition in healing trauma
Psychiatrist James Gordon emphasized the importance of food choices when one is healing from an abusive experience. Abuse survivors often turn to comfort foods in order to feel less anxious. These comfort foods are often unhealthy, and may include foods such as cake, ice cream and chips. It may have a temporary positive effect, but in the long run, that feeling of fear will still be there.
The mental health field has started to recognize the link between good nutrition and trauma. Research had shown that diet has a significant relationship with treating depression. There are studies that prove that nutritional supplements can reduce anxiety. The natural response of our body to trauma is that it increases the need for nutritional foods (both macro and micro nutrients) in order to heal. Thus, Dr. Gordon suggests choosing healthy foods and a balanced diet. For energy, carbohydrates should be on the meal plan, but be sure to choose the less glycemic ones. Omega-3 fatty acids should also be present in the diet. Foods with probiotics should also be considered.
The best foods to help you cope with trauma
Certain foods are proven to benefit mental health and reduce inflammation. For instance, fish like salmon contains two types of omega-3 fatty acids, which are linked to lower levels of depression. Bananas contain a natural probiotic that helps feed bacteria in the gut. Probiotics improves gut health and mood because of the live microorganisms that help the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut. Meanwhile, dark chocolate has a mood-boosting compound and is high in health-promoting flavonoids that can help you to feel better.
Making meal planning easier for abuse survivors
A variety of healthy meal kits are accessible online. For an abuse survivor, this is a great way to improve nutrition without increasing stress by having to plan the foods they should eat every day. There are customized meal kits that suit the nutritional needs of each client. Each kit includes all the fresh and organic ingredients needed for a given dish, and there are plenty of meal choices. Many companies offer additional peace of mind through their efforts in sustainability, further reducing the stress involved in choosing a plan. Most of the dishes are easy to cook, and will take less than thirty minutes to prepare. Cooking and preparing your own food can also be therapeutic and give you a greater sense of control.
Psychological wounds are harder to heal than physical injuries. Emotional abuse may contribute to chronic conditions. The connection between the mind and the body has been proven again and again. It is a relief to know that aside from the professional help provided by psychotherapy, there is another way too aid the healing process, simply by prioritizing healthy foods every day.
Warmhearted thank you for this interesting & very important short intro article, i’m just reading about the correlation connection between psyche & neuroimunology and what could help abusived survivre and or humans with adverse childhood syndrom.
There is important stuff of healing to discover and to lesen.
Alott of healing comes from nature.
I have actually felt noticeably better after eating a healthy, nutritionally balanced meal, albeit that’s a rare occurrence (mostly due to inconvenience).
Trauma from unchecked toxic abuse and/or significant family-life dysfunction (a.k.a. Adverse Childhood Experiences) typically result in a helpless child’s brain improperly developing. If allowed to continue for a prolonged period, it can act as a starting point into a life in which the brain uncontrollably releases potentially damaging levels of inflammation-promoting stress hormones and chemicals, even in non-stressful daily routines.
It has been described as a discomforting anticipation of ‘the other shoe dropping’ and simultaneously being scared of how badly you will deal with the upsetting event (that typically never happens). It can make every day an emotional/psychological ordeal, unless the mental turmoil is treated with some form of medicating, either prescribed or illicit. The pain — which unlike an open physical disability or condition, such as paralysis, a missing limb or eye — is very formidable yet invisibly confined to inside one’s head, solitarily suffered.
It makes sense that what one ingests as food and drink would have a notable effect, positive or negative, on one’s brain thus mind, however traumatized.