Gut

Publisher's Summary

Our gut is almost as important to us as our brain, yet we know very little about how it works. Gut: The Inside Story is an entertaining, informative tour of the digestive system from the moment we raise a tasty morsel to our lips until the moment our body surrenders the remnants to the toilet bowl. No topic is too lowly for the author's wonder and admiration, from the careful choreography of breaking wind to the precise internal communication required for a cleansing vomit. Along the way, the author provides practical advice, such as the best ways to sit on the toilet to have a comfortable bowel movement, how clean your kitchen should be for optimum gut health, and how different laxatives work. She tells stories of gut bacteria that can lead to obesity, autoimmune diseases, or even suicide, and she discusses the benefits of dietary supplements, such as probiotics.

This book is a fascinating primer for anyone interested in how our ideas about the gut are changing in the light of cutting-edge scientific research. In the words of the author, "We live in an era in which we are just beginning to understand just how complex the connections are between us, our food, our pets, and the microscopic world in, on, and around us. We are gradually decoding processes that we used to believe were part of our inescapable destiny."

©2015 Giulia Enders; Translation copyright 2015 by David Shaw (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Brilliant

THIS is the one gut book you need! Funny, well informed, and dare I say, life changing? From the position you use to defecate, to your water intake, to your new best friend bacteria.

I know, there are a lot of books have been written about the microbiome, some with more woo than others, but this one outstrips them in clarity and and humor. Giulia Enders is funny, clever and level headed. It is easy as pie to follow her explanations of the world inside. I love a nonfiction writer who appreciates the power of an anecdotes and quips and Enders is brilliant with them.

Katy Sobey's soothing narration never flags and is clear as a bell. I now want her to explain all biological systems to me.

84 of 87 people found this review helpful

Best Gut Microbe Book Around

If you are looking for a book on gut microbes and want to avoid pseudoscience and delve into a book which contains solid science, this book is an excellent choice. Oddly, I find that ratings for pseudoscience books like Perlmutter's Grain Brain are often higher than they are for books written by responsible scientists who will not make claims or provide any suggestions that are not scientifically studied and replicated. My guess is that real science, which doesn't yet have all the answers about microbes, is far less sexy than pseudoscience books that can make any claim or suggestion they like, while playing fast and loose with the actual available evidence.

The Good Gut by the Sonnenberg's contained a hippie vibe as well as solid science. This book has less of a hippie vibe but is far more rigorous than even the Sonneberg's book. So even if you were hoping for more of a hippie vibe, I would actually recommend this book over The Good Gut, only because it's actual scientific content is better. Adding to that, Enders is a fantastic writer and her tour of the human digestive system was absolutely fantastic. I have not found such a wonderful description in any other book.

126 of 131 people found this review helpful

Doctors opinion

I'm an anesthesiologist who is fresh enough out of medical school to remember all the GI lectures and I can say that this book CORRECTLY explains in a understandable way the current medical fields understanding of our gut. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to improve their lives (through understanding of their own GI system) or is just curious about how it all works down there. Keep up the good work!

17 of 17 people found this review helpful

Entertaining and smart

I'm not going to nitpick, this was very informative and entertaining. Anything I disagree with (I'm a nutrition scientist) was still cutting-edge and controversial when this came out. Very little to contend anyway.
Very good read!

46 of 48 people found this review helpful

Better Than "Gulp"!

I like Mary Roach, a lot. But she has a deviously wicked way of wantonly wallowing in the perversely humorous. While I smile a lot with her books, my toes have a tendency of curling...
"Gut" was delightful without being, well, dare I say it? Gross. Even though topics are covered such as: Is it better to sit or squat whilst pooing (Squat! Squat!)
And I was reminded of the "Time with Timer" series that used to come on after school (yes, I'm that old), where a microscopic being would take kids on tours of the inner body. Okay, so now I'll really relish each bite of cake I ever eat again.
I found this book to be enlightening, entertaining, wonderfully narrated. And as somebody who has trouble with crazy diets, I do believe it'll be helpful as I treat to eat mindfully.
And bravo to people who volunteer for scientific studies! And kudos to the hamsters who are probably wondering, "You want to study THAT? From me?!?"
A wonderful, gigglesome 7+ hour journey into that final frontier: You

72 of 77 people found this review helpful

Inside Scoop

Wonderful book. If you want to know what's going on on the inside then this is the book you need to read. It covers everything from how the macronutrients in our foods are processed by our bodies to how the microbiota in our gut pretty much regulates and controls our overall health.

23 of 25 people found this review helpful

I understand my Stomach now!

fantastic audio book, story and narrative were wonderful, starting my 3rd replay, can't recommend it enough! 5 Stars all around

34 of 39 people found this review helpful

Fascinating, but a little thin on research

While I found the overall book interesting, along with the subject, the author comes to a great many conclusions with statements like "initial research is encouraging" or "future research might reveal" which is not science. I think the author's enthusiasm to contribute to a new and growing pool get in the way of sound and defensible conclusions that adhere to scientific method. What you're getting is her "gut" feeling on things a lot of the time. There are interesting studies and the science of gut bacteria is growing, but few conclusions in this book are backed up by real, hard science.

19 of 22 people found this review helpful

Informative and engaging ... and well read.

Dr Enders has done a beautiful job of marrying science with wit. This life-changing book, which reveals the power of the microbiome, is as informative as it is engaging thanks to great narration and skillfully interspersed humour. A must read for all who plan on trusting their gut!

19 of 22 people found this review helpful

Fascinating and funny...

What an absolute delight to read - er - listen to. No mince or wince, just a matter of fact, straightforward and frequently comic description of the gut and how it works. It's a topic Enders finds absolutely fascinating and now so do I. The reader did a great job, I thought. British pronunciations sometimes are different than American, for instance like al-u-min-i-um instead of a-lum-i-num. Didn't put me off at all.

15 of 18 people found this review helpful