# Eating for recovery

> Healing tissue needs building material. Three changes that help most after an injury or an operation.

Tomás Ribeiro, 2026-09-02 · https://linen.themes.dev/journal/eating-for-recovery/

After an injury or an operation, people tend to eat less: you move less, so it seems sensible. But healing is work, and it needs material.

## Three changes that help most

- **Protein at every meal**, not just at dinner. A yoghurt, eggs, beans or fish at breakfast and lunch spreads it over the day, which is how your body uses it best.
- **Enough energy overall.** Cutting back hard while you heal slows healing down. Eat to appetite, and don’t start a diet in the first weeks.
- **Colour on the plate.** Vegetables and fruit bring the vitamins tissue repair relies on. Frozen counts.

## What doesn’t help

Supplements you haven’t been advised to take, and anything sold as a recovery shake that costs more than a meal. If you eat a varied diet, you rarely need them.

## When to see a dietitian

If you have lost weight without trying, if you are training while injured, or if eating has become complicated. Most basic policies pay for three hours of advice a year.