Alanis Morissette used food to quash feelings of fear and loneliness.

The 37-year-old musician suffered from the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia when she was a teenager and has admitted her struggles with food came from an unhealthy desire to bury her feelings.

Writing in her blog for iVillage.com, she said: "There are often traumas and abuses/neglect that are begging to be healed. Fat can be a way to protect ourselves and survive, a way to control something in a world where everything feels out of control, and a way to stave off profound fear of feeling our feelings. I often find anxiety, fear, boredom, disappointment, loneliness, excitement and grief to be the top feelings food can attempt to prevent."

Although she has overcome her disorder, Alanis - who has an 11-month-old son Ever Imre with her husband Mario 'Souleye' Treadway - still has a "fraught relationship with food and fat".

She explained: "See, my fraught relationship with food and fat has always been a cloaked invitation into a more profound kindness to myself (one I have so often ignored). Being kind toward my fragility in the face of a monolithic message of perfectionism and intolerance has not been an easy path - nor, I'm ashamed to say, a consistent one. Writing about it helps."