Category Archives: reading

The Beat Goes On – –

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Once again Jack scrapes in under the wire –
Back when I was on the teaching staff at Swannanoa Gathering Celtic Week outside Asheville NC, one of the students who always attended my classes was Stefni. She sang in a choir in Pittsburgh that specialized in Eastern European music and she made their costumes. The last year I taught there Stefni didn’t show up and I wondered why. A few months later I received an email from her husband explaining she had died of a rare lung disease. That was very sad, but then he told us she had left her music and book library to us in her will! We were astonished and drove up there a few months later.
Sorting through her stuff was difficult and we came to an agreement to sell anything we didn’t want and split the proceeds. But that still left us with lots of stuff that never got put anywhere easily accessible.
Following our recent house move I’ve been sorting through the LPs and CDs from her collection that had never been properly stashed and I’ve been discovering amazing things. Mostly very rare English, Scottish and Irish recordings in excellent condition. It’s clear from the stickers on them that she was an avid collector and appreciated what she was finding.
So my upcoming radio shows will feature much from Stefni’s collection and keep her very clearly in my mind.
There’s no room here to list all the stuff, but it ranges from everything Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger ever recorded to very obscure albums by Robin Williamson of the Incredible String Band.
Of course the books included full first editions of Child’s ‘English and Scottish Popular Ballads’, Bronson’s ‘Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads’, and Sharp’s ‘English Folk-songs from the Southern Appalachians’.
I hope dear Stefni Agin is looking down approvingly at the continuing life of her amazing collection as I try to do justice to it.

The Monday Book: GRAIN BRAIN by David Perlmutter

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grain brainGrain Brain

A review by Paul Garrett

It was only a few years ago that the word Alzheimer’s entered our vocabulary, and since then the disease has been blamed on everything from chem trails to aluminum cooking pots, but what if the devastating disease is linked to our diet? Dr. David Perlmutter posits this theory in the book Grain Brain (Little, Brown Spark, 2013, revised 2018).

Perlmutter is one of a growing minority who adhere to a theory I will call evolutionary eating. It goes something like this: Humans evolved over millions of years as hunters and gatherers, consuming a diet of high fat, moderate protein and occasional carbohydrates. It wasn’t until about 12,000 years ago we began consuming a diet high in carbs, mostly from grains. Up until then carbs were only available a few months of the year when the fruit and berries were available.  According to Dr. Perlmutter, we haven’t had time to evolve into beings that can metabolize a high carbohydrate diet.

Perlmutter believes that we function best on diets like the high fat, low carb Keto and its cousin the Paleo diet. He thinks the low fat, high carb regime that has been the darling of government nutritionists is killing us.

The book is heavy on citations and points to recent research from all over the world that shows the deleterious effects of sugar and gluten on the brain, as well as other parts of the body.

Perhaps one of the most controversial sections is the chapter that rips Statin drugs. According to Perlmutter there is no direct evidence that high cholesterol is tied to heart attacks but plenty of evidence showing that low cholesterol is directly related to brain disease.

The book has three parts. In the first Dr. Perlmutter lays out his case, Part Two lays out the case for proper diet and rest. The third part includes recipes and a four-week plan of action to combat the effects of sugar ang gluten, including a list of supplements including DHA and Coconut oil.

Is it possible that cutting out sugar and gluten is the key to a healthy brain? It is a controversial notion. But with the popularity of regimes like the Keto and Paleo diets we may soon have a body of evidence on which to draw.