Naked Lunch - Bif Naked`s Search for Food
By Carol Crenna
Source: vista

Canadian musician Bif Naked discusses being a vegan

Born to teen parents in New Delhi, India, found and adopted by American missionaries, then moved to Minneapolis, Kentucky, and Winnipeg, Bif Naked may have had a turbulent beginning but she has landed on two feet. In 1995, after a rebellious youth and a successful career launch, she gave up the road that leads nowhere—smoking, drinking, drugs and bad food—and began her quest for a supremely healthy lifestyle.

Vista: How long have you been interested in healthy eating?

Bif: I have been a vegetarian for ten years and a strict raw food vegan for three.

 

Vista: How do you manage that when touring?

Bif: A major part of my life seems to be my struggle to find food. (She sings) “There ain’t no shade in Texas and there ain’t no tofu.” Even if there are vegetarian restaurants in the cities I go to, between radio interviews, sound checks and shows, I won’t find them. Access to organic produce where I live in Vancouver is phenomenal, but hunting down that one organic grocer in Ottawa or Philadelphia means hoping I can get there from the venue, hoping the taxi driver knows where it’s located, and hoping I have time to get there and back. Yet I find that if I don’t start introducing conventionally grown food (rather than organic) into my diet a week before I go on tour I’ll get sick. I believe there is something to be said about eating too clean.

Vista: So when do you buy groceries to whip up a salad?

Bif: I don’t. I eat a bell pepper like it’s an apple and a cucumber like it’s a hot dog. There’s just not time. Protein was always a problem since I rarely get a refrigerator in hotel rooms and most protein needs to be refrigerated. The concert promoter provided celery and carrot sticks for me and pizza, beer and chips for my band, so I did the best I could but often went without.

 

Vista: Didn’t you need that fuel for a performance?

Bif: I always have energy but a few years ago I became too thin. My schedule had taken us on back to back tours of Europe, Canada and the US, doing 90 minute rock concerts every day, which is like a tough cardio workout. I was grateful for the generosity of a promoter in Eastern Europe who provided us with a meal of boiled meat, dumplings and beer but since I don’t eat wheat or meat and don’t drink, I would fast. I don’t want anyone to have to do anything extra for me because I’m responsible for myself.

I started getting protein from good hemp powders including Living Harvest and Mum’s but I mostly use a product called Vega because it has higher protein content and, unlike all others, it doesn’t have to be refrigerated, which changed the way I live. So I gained the weight back using this and eating dates and figs. I truly feel that all of our ills can be cured by good nutrition, and I believe in the body’s abilities to heal from within.

Vista: Why did you start this?

Bif: I realized I couldn’t continue to do the best I could 100 percent of the time if I didn’t change. I first quit drinking, drugs and smoking, then I quit meat, then dairy, and it kept evolving. I educated myself. Ghandi’s health guide was an integral book for me, and several others, and then I found Brendan Brazier’s Thrive, which I could really relate to. I’m a voracious reader and own 3,500 books, from the history of surgery to the colloquial Turkish language. But I don’t watch TV and am not good at computers.

Vista: Any vices?

Bif: I love café Americanos and bubble gum.

Vista: You obviously work out a lot.

Bif: I resistance (weight) train and do Ashtanga yoga, and believe in moving my body every day. I work out by myself since it’s very meditative and use it to do my own mental housekeeping.

Vista: You have a spiritual side, which must add to your healthy outlook.

Bif: I am very religious compared to many people. I’ve read books on Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, the Koran, and by cross-referencing, feel that all paths lead to the same God—Krishna is Christ, and even atheists can be Buddhists. And the universal higher power wouldn’t mind if you borrowed from each. Those who aren’t accepting of others’ faiths are often the ones who are also not nutritionally, physically and emotionally healthy. I really like the philosophy that says, “As is the food, so is the body. As is the body, so is the mind.”


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