Zena Wigram

No.

What you eat or drink does not directly affect your voice.

When you swallow, your soft palate lifts up so the food doesn’t go up your nose, and your epiglottis folds down to block off your trachea (windpipe) so the food doesn’t go into your lungs.

I’ve had people recommend sherry, port, ginger tea and raw egg (!) as well as tell me I should avoid chocolate, milk, or toast. It’s quite hard to say gently that they’re talking nonsense.

What can affect your voice is something with strong fumes. So sucking on a cough sweet with menthol will have a similar effect to inhaling friar’s balsam: the fumes will pass through and affect your vocal folds. Generally such remedies are intended to clear your nose if you have a cold. They dry out the tissues, and drier vocal folds don’t move as easily, so avoid them for an hour or so before you sing.

Inhaling ordinary steam is very good for your voice: it moisturises and softens them. But don’t try to sing immediately after inhaling. They’ll be loose and floppy for a bit, so leave it 5 – 10 minutes.

What you eat and drink can affect your voice later – for example, alcohol and caffeine dry out your tissues. And if you have a lactose intolerance, as I do, milk is unhelpful. Some folk prefer not to eat just before they sing. But very early in my career I did a manic pantomime tour which involved four performances a day at times. Then you eat when you can!

Fun facts about eating

• Swallowing is also called ‘deglutition’
• There are three phases to swallowing: the bit you control is the first phase, when you use your tongue to swallow.
  Then the soft palate and epiglottis move involuntarily so the food or drink goes down the right hole.
  Then the muscles in the esophagus contract to move the food down to your stomach.
• The contracting of the esophagus muscles to push food down is called ‘peristalsis.’ Being sick – when the muscles push the food up again – is called ‘anti-peristalsis’.