by Adebowale Ajose

Created on: March 31, 2009

Voice is very important in every one life, we depend on our voice to connect with people. This connection can only come when have given definite information or persuading the person involved. Singing is an act that demands so much from our voice due to the stress being exerted on the voice box during the process of singing. It is therefore important to ensure that we take care of our voice to avoid cracking of the voice or total vocal cord paralysis. For many singers they realize their voice is stressed when the following is observed: when the voice has become hoarse or raspy, when the ability to hit some high notes can no longer be achieved when singing, when their throat is feeling achy or raw, when they clear your throat too often and when they discover their voice is sounding deeper.

Before we discuss what to eat to prevent our voice breakdown, we need to look at various or common causes of voice problems. Identifying these problems will help us proffer solutions to how nutrition or diet can help our voice. So the probable voice problem a singer is likely to encounter includes vocal cord misuse and abuse as a result of stressing the voice while in use, upper respiratory infections especially cold that results in catarrh and cough, inflammation of the vocal cord and growths on the vocal cords. There are other complex vocal diseases but these are the common vocal diseases.

So what food or drinks will not help our voice?

Even though water is very important for singing voice, I've discovered that taking cold water will not help our voice to function maximally. Cold (chilled) water or any other drink) put strains on the voice and may likely cause the voice to become hoarse, also the probability of catching cough is very high which strains the voice box a great deal.

Smoking is also bad for the voice, though some may feel the menthol feel helps the voice it doesn't bet rather could lead to cancer of the voice box.

Spices may not be very good if you want to maintain a good voice, the stomach generates amino acids whenever we eat spicy foods due to reflux, there is a probability of this acid moving to the throat and acid is know to have a negative effect on the voice box.

Eating nuts also have a detrimental effect on our voice, nuts are potential cause of cough and coughing is not so good for our voices.

Other food items to avoid are tea, coffee and alcohol which could cause dryness of the throat, Oranges, lemon, tangerine, milk and cheese are also not good for singers because they encourage the formation of mucus.

And what food and drinks will help our voices?

Water, warm water is of great help because it helps hydrate our voice. It is advised that a singer should take more than 2.5 litres of water daily.

Bananas and honey are also good for the voice they give a soothing feeling to the strained voice.

For a singer the voice is an asset that can not be joked with such a voice needs attention and care to thrive among other voices. It is therefore important to ensure proper attention is given to our voice to avoid it becoming a liability. So act with care.

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