According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), consuming a healthy diet can benefit everyone – especially individuals with substance use disorder (SUD).  Although often overlooked, nutrition can play a key role in the treatment and recovery process for individuals with SUD.

The Christian County Nutrition Education Program assistant taught the Healthy Choices for Every Body curriculum at a cooking class in a substance recovery center. Healthy Cooking, Food Safety, Healthy Affordable Meals, Fruits and Vegetables, physical fitness tips and similar subjects were taught to the clients while they cooked nutritious recipes to sample.

According to pre and post questionnaires, 100% of participants showed improvement in one or more diet quality indicators with 83% eating more vegetables and 67% eating more fruit and yogurt each day. 83% showed improvement in food safety knowledge and in food resource management practices such as budgeting enough money for food. In addition, 83% of the participants increased their physical activity levels by exercising for at least 30 minutes daily.