In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Shania Twain revealed she avoids solid food on show days.
Explaining her pre-show ritual, the 60-year-old singer said she has avoided dairy for “many, many years” because it affects her ability to sing. “I can’t sing if I have had any dairy, so no dairy,” she said.
She has also learnt that eating solid food before a performance can cause digestive discomfort later in her set.
“If I have any solids during the day of the show, around song seven, I start burping,” Shania explained. “Even if it’s a little cheat, it just comes back on me during the show. So I drink all of my nutrients on show days before singing, and then after the show I will eat.”
That post-show dinner often takes place on a plane and is far from glamorous.
“It’s not great because it’s always a late eat. It’s usually a very cafeteria kind of thing. [The food] is cold now, and it’s in a to-go container, and it’s plastic or wood utensils; it’s never glamorous or glorious. I eat like a camper after the show,” she joked.
Before taking to the stage, Shania usually mixes a non-dairy protein shake.
“The perfect one is raw spinach and banana,” she says. However, if she starts her day late, she sometimes has the protein drink without the fruit or vegetables – “and then I’m really hungry. But I’ve just got to stick it out. It takes some discipline.”
Shania views this approach as part of treating her performances like an athletic event.
“You have to think about it a little bit more like an athlete,” she said. “You don’t want to eat the wrong thing before going into the gym or before getting on the tennis court. It just doesn’t sit right.”
Is Shania Twain’s Pre-Show Protein Shake Enough To Fuel A High-Energy Performance?
Registered dietician Priya Tew says there are some occasions when liquid nutrition can be helpful. But whether Shania’s routine provides adequate fuel depends on what she eats throughout the rest of the day.
“If she has had a balanced, nutritious breakfast and lunch, for example, and then is having this smoothie as something to give her the energy for her performance, then eating dinner afterwards, it makes total sense,” says Tew.
For some people, a meal replacement drink or smoothie can be helpful because it’s easy to digest and convenient to consume on the go. However, Tew wouldn’t recommend relying solely on liquid nutrition unless someone has a medical condition that requires it.
If a smoothie is replacing a meal, she says it should ideally provide a good balance of nutrients – carbohydrates, protein, fat, fruit and vegetables. That could mean adding oats for carbohydrates, tofu or protein powder for protein, and avocado or peanut butter for healthy fats.
READ MORE: A Nutritionist Shares 3 High-Protein Meals She Actually Eats On Busy Days
The Bottom Line
So, should we all be chugging spinach and banana before the gym? Maybe not.
Shania has found a solution to the fairly specific problem of burping her way through song seven. For the rest of us, though, a pre-workout shake can be useful when solid food won’t sit well – just don’t mistake a scoop of protein powder for a fully-fledged meal. What you put in it, and what you’ve eaten around it, still counts.
READ MORE: 5 Easy DIY Protein-Packed, Energy-Boosting Juices And Shakes
This article by Alice Barraclough was originally published on Women’s Health UK.
