Psyche Delicacies: Coffee, Chocolate, Chiles, Kava, and Cannabis, and Why They're Good for You - Hardcover

Kilham, Chris

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1579543472 ISBN 13: 9781579543471

Publisher: Rodale Books, 2001

Synopsis

Describes the history, folklore, and science of five widely used psychotropic plants.

About this title

Review:

Need a lift? Human beings have always been attracted to "psychoactivity," says author Chris Kilham, and have searched out mind-altering and mood-modifying plants throughout history. Psyche Delicacies explores the five most commonly used psychoactive plants: coffee, chocolate, chiles, kava, and cannabis. All are "exquisite works of nature" that "can fit well into a healthy, active lifestyle with little or no harmful effects," writes Kilham, a biological researcher and author of several books, including Tales from the Medicine Trail.

"We are built for pleasure," writes Kilham, who approaches his subject with passion. "Coffee is good for you, good for you, good for you." Chocolate is the "blissful food of the gods." Kava is the "peace plant of paradise." Hell is a place with eternally bad coffee. Kilham describes the history, lore, chemistry, cultivation, and benefits of his chosen plants, including his own personal experiences with them. (You'll never forget to wash after handling chiles after reading about Kilham's restroom experience!) He is opinionated ("I cannot in good conscience say anything good about decaffeinated coffee") and teeming with fervor. If you love any or all of these psychoactive plants, Psyche Delicacies is as entertaining as it is educational, and a terrific gift book. --Joan Price

From the Inside Flap:

In Psyche Delicacies, globetrotting medicine hunter Chris Kilham presents passionate portraits of five widely used psychoactive plants that, he argues, have affected the course of human history. From the lush coffee orchards of Hawaii's Kona Coast to the cannabis-covered hills of the Indian Himalaya, Kilham takes readers along on a world tour to meet the people and places that make coffee, chocolate, chiles, kava, and cannabis what they are to us today. Employing evocative and sometimes provocative prose to weave history, folklore, and science into a dazzling whole, Kilham presents a mind-expanding case for the enthusiastic, guilt-free use of these much-loved plants and their various preparations.

Few adults haven't partaken of at least one of the featured psyche delicacies, and that's the author's point. Maintaining that we all can benefit from the reverie induced by consuming these mood-altering plants, Kilham presents clinical and academic evidence to handily dispatch the notion that these agents of nature, taken in moderation, are some-how bad for us. Instead, he asserts that they refresh both body and mind, helping us to achieve the very highest order of healthfulness.

Whether you are an avid coffee drinker, a hot-chile devotee, a casual cannabis user, or just curious, you'll be surprised and delighted by all you experience when you read Psyche Delicacies.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1579543472
• ISBN 13: 9781579543471
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240