on a diet of Melba toast , carrots , and black coffee , '' she said . `` I began recovering at 18 , when a sweet friend confronted me . '' Now that she 's older , Morissette , 35 , said she 's no longer starving herself and has begun to look at eating as `` a sort of spiritual practice . '' Her healthier view of food and nutrition is thanks in no small part to a book she discovered a few years ago called `` Eat to Live . '' `` It 's become my bible , pushing me to completely reorient my thinking about what to put into my body . ... Now I concentrate on eating high-nutrient foods like fruit , nuts , collards , kale and spinach . I 'm obsessed with them . I even put spinach in my smoothies , '' the Canadian musician admitted . The seven-time Grammy Award winner has also sworn off dairy , on a tip from Woody Harrelson , no less . `` Woody Harrelson -LSB- told -RSB- me I needed to get rid of the dairy in my fridge to clear up my skin ,
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Alanis Morissette was the definition of `` fierce '' when she arrived on the American music scene with one of the big break-up songs of the '90s , `` You Oughta Know . '' But behind that tough exterior were secrets of a difficult past . `` As a teen , I was both anorexic and bulimic , '' Alanis Morissette recently told Health magazine for its December issue . `` I was a young woman in the public eye , on the receiving end of a lot of attention , and I was trying to protect myself from men who were using their power in ways I was too young to know how to handle . '' By the time Morissette was 14 , she had already starred in a popular Canadian children 's show , started her own record label and had a publishing contract with MCA Canada , according to her Web site . `` Disappointment , sadness and pain hit me hard , and I tried to numb those feelings through my relationship with food . For four to six months at a time , I would barely eat . I lived