The Other Four Gospels of Nutrition

A little while ago I blogged The Four Gospels of Nutrition, according to me. Now I bring you The Other Four Gospels of Nutrition. Perhaps if these were the only eight books on nutrition available to humanity, the world would be a happier, healthier, less argumentative and misleading place. 

Schwarzbein Principle by Diana Schwarzbein	Low carb, nutrient dense diet. Focusses on metabolic healing concept. The nutritional program consists of two phases -Healing and Maintenance - which are easy to adopt into any lifestyle. Instead of shunning fat, the program advocates eating all of the good fats and proteins your body needs as well as an unlimited portion of non-starchy carbohydrates.
The Diet Cure by Julia Ross	Therapeutic approach maintaining that addressing metabolic imbalances is key to nutritional health. Ross delivers a systematic overhaul of appetite chemistry, illustrating eight key physical imbalances implicated in particular health problems and get an idea of how to use the book to correct them.
Prescription for Nutritional Healing, by Phyllis A. Balch	This has long been America's bestselling book on natural health, with nearly 6 million copies in print, and a 4th edition. Presents a comprehensive treatment of nutritional supplements and dietary approaches to banish illness.
Nourishing Wisdom by Marc David	Smallest of the four books, but largest in scope. From a mind- body paradigm, discusses food neurosis and the current malady in the west of believing food is just fuel to be shoveled into the body. Explores the social, cultural, health and spiritual aspects of eating, and how to cultivate a healthful attitude to food.

By North Utsire

The Weirding Stone

Artwork for a psych- folk compilation I did. Pity I can't upload the music on Blogger, but I think you get the idea of what its like anyway.

by North Utsire

Curved Air: The Lost Broadcasts

Great psych prog- rock band with classical and folk influences. They remind me a bit of a less hedonistic but more classical Hawkwind, or the Doors, with that tortured synth. Curved Air were one of the first rock bands after It's a Beautiful Day and The United States of America to feature a violin. Both the founders Darryl Way and Francis Monkman, were heavily influenced by the band Spirit and originally formed Sisyphus. Along came Sonja Kristina and cured them all of Sisyphus, and behold Curved Air was formed.

Label: Gonzo Multimedia
01. Vivaldi 0:00
02. It Happened Today 08:38
03. Proposiciones 13:40
04. Back Street Luv I 20:42
05. Back Street Luv II 24:38
06. Piece Of Mind 28:49

by North Utsire

You Are Slowly Being Poisoned

Click the images to watch the documentaries. 
North Utsire

Water Wars

Click the images to watch the documentaries. 
North Utsire

Arthur Rackham #2

by North Utsire

Tree Lore #6: Holloway

Although I had heard of this creative effort by Robert Macfarlane, Stanley Donwood & Dan Richards before, it took a chance encounter with it at the Quaker Meeting House in London to compel me to buy it. Sitting down to a coffee (which is quite reasonable, and in spacious and agreeable surroundings, surrounded by quiet souls and the wisdom of the shelves of contemplative books), the slender volume had an instant tactile and visual appeal, especially on account of the dark artwork of Stanley Donwood. Contrary to what you might think (it being London), the book is not about the district of Holloway, but instead the ancient hedgerowed tracks- a hollow way, a sunken path. A route that centuries of foot- fall, hoof hit, wheel- roll & rain run have harrowed deep into bedrock. Of course such tracks are not much use to the tarmac generation, but that adds to their overgrown appeal. Out of character, and charmed by the endeavour, I paid full whack for the book with some satisfaction, rather than trying to hawk it second hand.

Late that night, we cycled back up to the holloway in fierce silver rain, skidding on wet mud, raindrops showing in our headlamp beams & the eye- glow of unknown animals glinting in the hedgerows.

The eyes of creatures shine in low light because of the presence of the tapetum lucidium, the bright carpet, a mirror- like membrane of iridescent cells that sits behind the retina. Light passes first through the rod and cone cells then strikes the membrane & rebounds back through the retina towards the light source. Any available light is used twice to see with; perception is thereby doubled.

So heavy was the rain and so thick the blackness of the night, that we soon became separated, each invisible to the other & yet when we later spoke, each of us had the experience of being pursued by another who was not of our group- someone holding a bright light and following in our tracks.

We slept that night down in the depths of the Holloway. In the darkest hours of the night a rain storm came, the water falling so hard it left drill- holes in the leaf litter. Walking at dawn I found that I had left my copy of Edward Thomas’s poems unsheltered. The rain had plumped it and driven gobbets of earth & shards of leaf in between the pages.

The path, winding like silver, trickles on,
Bordered and even invaded by thinnest moss
… and the eye
Has but the road, the wood that overhangs
And underyawns it, and the path that looks
As if it led on to some legendary
Or fancied place where men have wished to go
And stay; till, sudden, it ends where the wood ends.

by North Utsire

John Barleycorn Must Die

Corn dollies or corn mothers are a form of straw work made as part of harvest customs of Europe before mechanisation. Before Christianisation, in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the corn (in modern American English, "corn" would be "grain") lived amongst the crop, and that the harvest made it effectively homeless. James Frazer devotes chapters in The Golden Bough to "Corn-Mother and Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe" (chs. 45-48) and adduces European folkloric examples collected in great abundance by the folklorist Wilhelm Mannhardt. Among the customs attached to the last sheaf of the harvest were hollow shapes fashioned from the last sheaf of wheat or other cereal crops. The corn spirit would then spend the winter in this home until the "corn dolly" was ploughed into the first furrow of the new season. "Dolly" may be a corruption of "idol" or may have come directly from the Greek word eidolon (apparition).

The medieval English ballad is of the crop spirit John Barleycorn, who after being ploughed under the ground grows up again in the spring to be harvested and ultimately turned into homebrewed ale. And so the seasons change...

By North Utsire

Lammas Mountain Walk

Lughnasadh customs persisted widely until the 20th century, with the event being variously named 'Garland Sunday', 'Bilberry Sunday', 'Mountain Sunday' and 'Crohm Duh Sunday'. The custom of climbing hills and mountains at Lughnasadh has survived in some areas, although it has been absorbed as a Christian pilgrimage. The best known is the 'Reek Sunday' pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday in July. A number of fairs are also believed to be survivals of Lughnasadh, for example the Puck Fair.

Ushered along by benevolent sycamore sentinels and the scent of faery heather breezes, we headed up sharp ascents and undulating valleys with our tumbling feet in roots of tree knots and happy minds inspired with wind, water shores and rapier sunshine.

 By North Utsire