Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
"America's funniest science writer" (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn't the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? In Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks of--or has the courage to ask. We go on location to a pet-food taste-test lab, a fecal transplant, and into a live stomach to observe the fate of a meal. With Roach at our side, we travel the world, meeting murderers and mad scientists, Eskimos and exorcists (who have occasionally administered holy water rectally), rabbis and terrorists--who, it turns out, for practical reasons do not conceal bombs in their digestive tracts.
Like all of Roach's books, Gulp is as much about human beings as it is about human bodies.
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Community Reviews
So much information about how our alimentary canal works. Starting with sense of smell and ending with the anus. Roach is a master of researching obscure questions and conveying answers in a clear and colloquial manner.
I can't say enough about how much I love Mary Roach and her books. I love weird little facts and she obviously does too. Each book has given me enough to thoroughly creep out and disgust my friends. Gulp is the icing on the cake.
Adventures on the alimentary canal is the subtitle and Roach takes us from mouth to anus on a journey through our food tube. In the beginning, we eat. We learn about saliva, how we chew. Then we head to the stomach (why doesn't the stomach eat itself? It does. We basically have a new stomach every 3 days), to the intestines and out the chute.
Something might be wrong with me in that I read this book even while eating dinner. To quote the book, I've become "numb to the ick factor". I've had Ulcerative Colitis and had a lot of my diseased and pre-cancerous gut removed. I have an ileostomy. Poop and the ins and outs (no pun intended) of the gut just doesn't faze me at all.
I was really happy with the light that was shown on IBD and ostomies. Even if it was brief, it's a much better light than we normally get. Amazingly enough, it was interesting reading about fecal transplants (ick factor!) and how transplanting the healthy bacteria of a gut into a gut ravaged by UC or Crohns could actually save the colon.... well, it brought a tear to my eye!
I can't recommend Mary Roach and her books enough!
Adventures on the alimentary canal is the subtitle and Roach takes us from mouth to anus on a journey through our food tube. In the beginning, we eat. We learn about saliva, how we chew. Then we head to the stomach (why doesn't the stomach eat itself? It does. We basically have a new stomach every 3 days), to the intestines and out the chute.
Something might be wrong with me in that I read this book even while eating dinner. To quote the book, I've become "numb to the ick factor". I've had Ulcerative Colitis and had a lot of my diseased and pre-cancerous gut removed. I have an ileostomy. Poop and the ins and outs (no pun intended) of the gut just doesn't faze me at all.
I was really happy with the light that was shown on IBD and ostomies. Even if it was brief, it's a much better light than we normally get. Amazingly enough, it was interesting reading about fecal transplants (ick factor!) and how transplanting the healthy bacteria of a gut into a gut ravaged by UC or Crohns could actually save the colon.... well, it brought a tear to my eye!
I can't recommend Mary Roach and her books enough!
The path the author brings is still fulfilling the curious mind of what we choose to digest ans how our system is able to manage it but I just felt this book didn't have the same pull as the author overshot her descriptive attempts to be relatable, witty or comedic. I enjoyed her choices of subject, just not her usual flow to make it so appealing.
I read this right after First Bite because I was in the mood to learn more about eating and feeding. This book is more about digestion and it's full of random facts and ideas rather than being a focused on giving you a complete view of the digestive system. It was entertaining I guess, but I didn't find particular educational, and it was definitely gross.
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