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Giulia Enders

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ Paperback – May 24, 2015

by Giulia Enders (Author), Jill Enders (Illustrator), David Shaw (Translator)

1,796 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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A New York Times Bestseller

A cheeky up-close and personal guide to the secrets and science of our digestive system

For too long, the gut has been the body’s most ignored and least appreciated organ, but it turns out that it’s responsible for more than just dirty work: our gut is at the core of who we are. Gut: The Inside Story of our Body's Most Underrated Organ gives the alimentary canal its long-overdue moment in the spotlight. With quirky charm, rising science star Giulia Enders explains the gut’s magic, answering questions like: Why does acid reflux happen? What’s really up with gluten and lactose intolerance? How does the gut affect obesity and mood? Communication between the gut and the brain is one of the fastest-growing areas of medical research—on par with stem-cell research. Our gut reactions, we learn, are intimately connected with our physical and mental well-being. Aided with cheerful illustrations by Enders’s sister Jill, this beguiling manifesto will make you finally listen to those butterflies in your stomach: they’re trying to tell you something important.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Greystone Books
Publication date

May 24, 2015
Dimensions

5.75 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

1771641495
ISBN-13

978-1771641494
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Enders’s wonder at the strange ways of the gut is matched only by her incredulity at the limited public knowledge on the subject." —The New York Times

"With a great sense of humor and ample enthusiasm, Enders explains everything readers did and didn’t want to know about their innards ... this book defies boring."—Publishers Weekly

"This primer is everything you ever wanted to know about the gut (and then some), chattily and accessibly written in a uniquely Millennial and matter of fact way. An unexpected page turner. ...Her excitement about the subject matter is infectious. The fun yet informative black and white drawings throughout are her sister’s handiwork. Refreshingly devoid of recipes, or any self help-y language." —Self Magazine

". . . a truly bottoms-up approach to our digestive health, smoothly moving us through the inner workings of our gastrointestinal tract." —Anish Sheth, MD, author of What’s Your Poo Telling You

"Gut's probe into the human digestive system might be seen as an earnest younger sibling to Gulp, Mary Roach’s 2013 investigation into the same subject. The comparison isn’t meant as a slight; Enders swaps out Roach’s knowing wryness with a kind of puplike enthusiasm for the complex mechanisms that convert food into a body’s energy and waste without our even thinking about it." —The National Post

About the Author

Giulia Enders, MD is a two-time scholarship winner studying medicine at the Institute for Microbiology in Frankfurt. Her presentation of Darm mit Charme (Gut Charm) won her first prize at the Science Slam in Berlin and went viral on YouTube.

Jill Enders is a graphic designer whose main focus is communication in science, and the founder of a collaborative network of designers and scientists.

David Shaw was born in Leeds, UK. He has worked at Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international news broadcaster since 1995. Shaw has an M.A. from the University of Bath in Interpreting and Translating German and Russian, where his thesis was on the adaptation of German Television news texts for an international, English speaking audience. He regularly translates books from German to English.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1: Gut Feeling

The world is a much more interesting place if we look beyond what is visible to the naked eye. There is so much more to see! If we start to look more closely, a tree can be more than a spoon-shaped thing. In a highly simplified way, “spoon” is the general shape we perceive when we look at a tree: a straight trunk and a round treetop. Seeing that shape, our eyes tell us “spoon-like thing.” But there are at least as many roots beneath the ground as there are branches above it. Our brain should really be telling us something like “dumbbell,” but it doesn’t. The brain gets most of its input from our eyes, and that information is very rarely in the form of an illustration in a book showing trees in their entirety. So, it faithfully construes a passing forest landscape as “spoon, spoon, spoon, spoon.”

As we “spoon” our way through life like this, we overlook all sorts of wonderful things. There is a constant buzz of activity beneath our skin. We are perpetually flowing, pumping, sucking, squeezing, bursting, repairing, and rebuilding. A whole crew of ingenious organs works so perfectly and efficiently together that, in an adult human being, they require no more energy than a 100-watt light bulb. Each second, our kidneys meticulously filter our blood—much more efficiently than a coffee filter—and in most cases they carry on doing so for our entire lives. Our lungs are so cleverly designed that we use energy only when we breathe in. Breathing out happens without any expenditure of energy at all. If we were transparent, we would be able to see the beauty of this mechanism: like a wind-up toy car, only bigger, softer, and more lung y. While some of us might be sitting around thinking “Nobody cares about me!”, our heart is currently working its seventeen-thousandth twenty-four-hour shift—and would have every right to feel a little forgotten when its owner thinks such thoughts.

If we could see more than meets the eye, we could watch as a clump of cells grows into a human being in a woman’s belly. We would suddenly see how we develop, roughly speaking, from three tubes. The first tube runs right the way through us, with a knot in the middle. This is our cardiovascular system, and the central knot is what develops into our heart. The second tube develops more or less parallel to the first along our back. Then it forms a bubble that migrates to the top end of our body, where it stays put. This tube is our nervous system, with the spinal cord, including the brain, at the top and myriad nerves branching out into every part of our body. The third tube runs through us from end to end. This is our intestinal tube—the gut.

The intestinal tube provides many of the furnishings of our interior. It grows buds that bulge out farther and farther to the right and left. These buds will later develop into our lungs. A little bit lower down, the intestinal tube bulges again and our liver has begun to develop. It also forms our gall bladder and pancreas. But, most importantly, the tube itself begins to grow increasingly clever. It is involved in the complex construction of our mouth, creates our esophagus, with its ability to move like a break dancer, and develops a little stomach pouch so we can store food for a couple of hours. And, last but not least, the intestinal tube completes its masterpiece—the eponymous intestine or gut.

The masterpieces of the other two tubes—the heart and the brain—are generally held in high regard. We see the heart as central to life since it pumps blood around the body. The brain is admired for its ability to create a dazzling array of new mental images and concepts every second. But the gut, in most people’s eyes, is good for little more than going to the toilet. Apart from that, people think, it just hangs around inside our bellies, letting off a little “steam” every now and then. People do not generally credit it with any particular abilities. It would be fair to say that we underestimate our gut. To put it more bluntly, we don’t just underestimate it, we are ashamed of it—more “guilt feeling” than “gut feeling”!

I hope this book will change that by making use of the wonderful ability that books possess to show us more than the world we see around us. Trees are not spoons, and a gut feeling is a good feeling!

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Greystone Books; 1st edition (May 24, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1771641495
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1771641494
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #633,066 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #298 in Digestive Organ Diseases (Books)
- #305 in Gastroenterology (Books)
- #646 in Physiology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
1,796 ratings

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Giulia Enders

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Top reviews from the United States

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N. Ellis

some good, some in love with the sound of their ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

Too many people have given this book an in-depth and critical analysis, some good, some in love with the sound of their keyboard as they type. For me, this was a great book to enhance my understanding of current research on the Brain-Vagus nerve-Gut connection. As a man in his 60s, I'm looking reasons to stay away from the medical community. Books like this help me to make informed decisions about my own health care and fitness.

46 people found this helpful

Helpful

Marni Kelso

Awesome read!

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2017

Verified Purchase

I have been struggling with digestive issues for many years and I read a lot about different health advances. But, this book is SO well written and gives great information. I definitely feel that I understand my digestive system much better (seriously, after all these years of reading about health and I finally get it!) and I feel that I am armed with a few ideas to heal my digestive system. I am so very happy that someone recommended this book to me.

18 people found this helpful

Helpful

Molly

Lively writing and fun facts, not all of them true

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2015

Verified Purchase

The first chapters of on gut anatomy and mechanics are a delight, written with authority and high spirits in equal measure. I learned a lot. Enders has a lively sense of curiosity and humor, and an endearing habit of anticipating readers' questions and answering them with great detail and patience. I loved the details. I was disappointed in the later chapters, maybe because I know more about the microbiome than about gut workings. There was too much "truthiness," too many trendy hypotheses and scientific urban legends presented as fact. Martin Blaser's hypothesis that loss of H pylori is behind the epidemic of asthma is fascinating, maybe even true, but not yet evidence-based. There is no real evidence that H pylori causes Parkinsonism, or toxo (cat parasite) schizophrenia. There's no problem in presenting these as intriguing hypotheses, as long as you don't give the impression they are well established science. Perhaps the strangest was the blithe claim that salmonellosis in German eggs is caused by farmers buying cheap grain from Africa, where random turtles walk about in the fields pooping on seeds. Leaving aside the xenophobia, most outbreaks of Salmonella do not come from strolling exotic reptiles but from domestic, endemic infections in livestock. Recently, Germany has spawned numerous European outbreaks of salmonellosis in the old-fashioned way: poorly regulated high-density factory farming with birds crammed into tiny, filthy cages. The most recent outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis PT14b has resulted in nearly 300 cases, and one death in the U.K. It has been traced to Bayern Ei, a notorious egg producer in Bavaria. In the U.S., Aldi's has recalled contaminated German chocolates from its shelves...
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=21098

434 people found this helpful

Helpful

Matt Bailey

Great Overview of Gut Health.

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2017

Verified Purchase

I have been getting a lot of diet advice based on gut health. Some of it was contradictory so I decided I would be better off getting a general overview allowing me to apply and sift through the data. This book is excellent for that.

The author has an engaging and humorous writing style. She clearly knows what she is talking about, and the book is well illustrated by the authors sister. I would highly recommend this to anyone before they go off and buy probiotics or follow a new diet based on gut health. This will let you separate the useful from the hype.

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kay goracke

A must read for all

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

I learned a lot that I did not know! I couldn't probably pronounce or remember all these scientific names. The author put things in a way that was delightfully funny and painted a picture of how our Gut works. What an amazing piece of work. The more we understand how our bodies work, the more we can treat them right and hopefully be healthier. I've always believed that what you eat is how your health will go except for some of the major disasters in this life that are out of our control. Take care of your marvelous bodies and learn about how they work!

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

L. Angier

This book spills the guts out for all to learn

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is another good book to read, especially after "This is Your Brain on Parasites." It covers a part of the body most people ignore until the proverbial s&*t hits the fan (toilet). :-)

Though Giulia Enders seems quite young by reading her bio, this well-written books tells a lot about how our "gut" does its job. It kept my interest with each chapter I've read and has made a little more sense to me about the dirty work this marvelous system does for our bodies.

So much is explained well in this concise, well-written account of the organs with which we input food and drink, process and eventually output.

I purchased the audio edition and now I'm on my third listening since it arrived just a few weeks ago and each time, I pick up just a little more to feed my gut feeling.

I used my gut-feeling to purchase this book after a good experience listening to "This is Your Brain on Parasites" and this fills me up with more knowledge about my own physiological systems.

Bottom line, "Gut" is a well-written book worth reading!

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Tracy C

I had a better understanding of why my Gastroenterologist might have chosen the ...

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book had a lot of very fascinating information in it about how the digestive tract operates, why it does what it does, the role of our intestinal bacteria and how it influences our health. After reading it, I had a better understanding of why my Gastroenterologist might have chosen the practice he did instead of something more glamorous like cardiology. The efficient operation and overall health of our digestive system influences every other aspect of our health.

My issues with this book concern a couple of assertions made by the author that I had to research and ponder. For instance, (and I paraphrase) the author stated it was known that the gut bacteria influence the immune system, which in turn determines a child's ABO blood group. As far as I've been able to determine by re-reading scientific papers and consulting with a serologist friend, the ABO blood groups are determined by genetics.

My opinion is that this book is interesting and will tell you a lot about the GI tract and its influence on the body, but it may be best to take some portions of it with a grain of salt. Citations are contained at the back and it might have been more helpful for the book to have included footnotes instead.

32 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

VW

We should all know our digestive system and Ms Enders teaches a serious topic with humour.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2017

Verified Purchase

Amazing what the subconscious does - digestive system included. Simply written with wonderfully graphic descriptions of the process and organs which I never had explained at school or in life. Everyone should read this and enjoy the authors light approach from eyeing up your food to giving it permission to exit. Learnt and laughed. Brilliant.

20 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Fantastic book you learn so much

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

Fantastic book you learn so much. Interesting reading for health professional as well as the general public.So interesting and humorous in parts when explain different aspects of the book.

5 people found this helpful

Kit

Excellent Light Reading With Insights

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

It does brush the surface somewhat - but even if you want some deep knowledge it's great to have some light reading materials like this. You can pick up the book and read it and be relaxed rather than straining your brain. A lot of interesting areas covered, and the author seems to have a very good common sense attitude towards the research presented.

9 people found this helpful

S. C. Kent

but this is a very good book for learning

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2017

Verified Purchase

A clear and interesting Book about the gut. I was found biology difficult to master as school, but this is a very good book for learning. I got the audio version. It's a must have if you have any digestion problems or bowel problems as it can give you greater understanding about your body and the effect you can have on it, and it can have on you.

9 people found this helpful

Carole P

Want to learn about your gut?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is a great book if you are new to "the gut" or already know a lot about gut health. The author has done a good job at presenting scientific/medical information in an interesting and educational manner. This should probably be a book that all high-school kids should read as it will give them a lot of reasons as to why to make healthy food choices and how food impacts our gut and therfore our overall health - for life. I found it a fascinating read, learnt a lot and now know why healthy poo is brown in colour!

One person found this helpful

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