A serious commitment to your drug of choice can mean your diet takes a back seat. Here are a few tips on stoking the fires without affecting your finances too badly.
Need to lose or put on weight?
Ideally you should be reducing your daily calorie intake to somewhere within 500 to 1000 calories a day. You can buy cheap calorie guide books at most newsagents. Total fat should be less than 30% of your total calories. Reducing saturated fat is important (e.g. read meat), especially if your cholesterol is high. Avoid junk food, and try to minimise your simple carbohydrates, such as cakes, biscuits, breads and pastas. For serious weight problems, see a registered dietician for dietary therapy, or develop a weight management program with your doctor.
Exercise
This must go hand in hand with your diet for good health. Try to get 30 minutes exercise, three times a week, even if it is just walking. This will lower your chances of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. You may want to check with your doctor before adopting an exercise plan.
Lifestyle changes
Our society is geared to look for the ‘quick fix’, hence the popularity of fad diets. But research has always shown the best way to keep in shape long-term is a combined effort of eating well and regular exercise. This is why it is crucial to change your eating and exercise habits in an achievable way. Many of us can stick to a gruelling regime for a few weeks or months. But a sensible, enjoyable change of habits will see you staying healthy in a more permanent way.
When you don’t feel like eating
A serious habit, especially with heroin, can mean you simply aren’t hungry much of the time, but you need to get good food into you to keep your health up. Try to eat little bits of food regularly. Make sure the food is high in vitamin and mineral content, and see if some good spices might get your appetite going. While they aren’t a substitute for good food, a daily multi-vitamin tablet may help if you aren’t eating much.
Take a regular holiday from drugs
Give your body and mind time to recover occasionally by taking a break from drugs – or at the very least take a break from injecting and try the smoking, snorting, swallowing or shafting alternatives. Your body can often heal itself quickly given good food and a break from drugs, especially your veins!
When money is scarce
Finances are a hassle especially with lack of work and/or a big habit. When the money does come around, try to stock up on tinned fruit and frozen vegetables, powdered milk or long-life milk. They aren’t as good as the fresh items, but are still healthier and cheaper than fast food.
Doing it really tough
Some people find themselves homeless and struggling just to get by. In most communities, there are ways to get a free meal that’s good for you. Check with your local Needle Syringe Program or local welfare services for places where you can score at least one decent meal a day. Getting a bit of good fuel into your body will help keep you healthy and in better shape to deal with any issues life throws your way.
HOW DOES YOUR DIET RATE?
Your diet should be mostly based around foods from these five groups every day. There’s also the added bonus of saving money – stocking up on these items can save you hundreds of dollars each year, compared to eating out or getting into junk food...
Bread, cereals, rice, pasta noodles
Fibre, vitamins and minerals, carbohydrates and protein — all great stuff for energy, growth and repair of the body. Try eating wholegrain bread, high fibre cereal, brown rice and wholemeal pasta. Don’t rely on just bread and breakfast cereal – get into rice, pasta and noodles, as they have less salt.
Vegetables, legumes
A good source of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and carbohydrates, they are usually cheap, especially when they are in season. They are still nutritious even if you buy them frozen or canned.
Fruit
Fruit is a rich source of vitamins, including vitamin C and folate. Fruit also provides carbohydrates, in particular natural sugars and fibre, especially in the edible skins. Fruit also provides dietary fibre which can help prevent and manage conditions such as being overweight, bowel cancer, haemorrhoids, diabetes and high blood cholesterol. Choose whole fruit more often than fruit juice, as it is higher in fibre.
Dairy products
Milk, cheese and yoghurt are excellent sources of calcium. Try to avoid all the sugar and fat that can be present in some yoghurts and milk drinks. Women, and girls especially, need calcium to protect against osteoporosis. These foods are also a good source of protein, riboflavin and vitamin B12.
Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, legumes
While a great part of your diet, don’t go overboard on meat where possible, and get the low fat ones. This food group provides a good source of iron and zinc. Iron helps your body carry oxygen in the blood, and zinc is an important mineral that assists the healing of wounds, growth and reproduction. Vegetarians, and especially vegans, need to boost their intake of foods such as legumes, nuts and seeds to get sufficient protein, iron and zinc.
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Reproduced with permission of Black Poppy, a UK-based drug user organisation. Check out their website at www.blackpoppy.org.uk for heaps of useful information.
