I’ve been driving my family mad with trivia from this adorable best-selling book on the unglamorous subject of the digestive system. Did you know, for instance, that you have up to two kilos worth of micro-organisms living in your gut? Or that saliva is filtered blood? Or that plants make their seeds slightly poisonous in the hope that we won’t eat them. Nerdy stuff, I know, but quite fun nevertheless!
Giulia Enders, a 25 year old student of gastroenterology, somehow manages to make this unsavoury topic not only interesting but also witty! Her musings around the sophisticated mechanics of vomiting, the millions of bacteria in our digestive system or the latest research into the connection between obesity or mental health and gut bacteria are much more fascinating than you’d think. It’s sort of like listening to your very bright medical student niece explaining, in layman’s terms, the workings of this unappreciated (and under-researched) part of our body. And no, you don’t have to have digestive issues to find this book interesting (although it probably doesn’t hurt). A vague interest in how your body works is plenty.
