I picked up this book after watching Hack Your Health: The Secrets Of Your Gut on Netflix. “Gut – The Inside Story Of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ” was written by Giulia Enders in 2014 when she was just 24 years old and a medical student. The original text was in German and later published in other languages. I do not speak German, but the English version is really funny, so I can imagine that it is a great reflection on the author’s humor.

Gut is written for laypeople who do not study medicine. I think there are only a few places where the Latin terms are hard to remember or pronounce, but everything else is very easy to understand. The book starts out with a discussion over…feces. We don’t often think about our product nor do we seek out information on it. Hence, it’s fascinating to read about our poop. Then, the author talks about the structure of our gut, how we transport food from the mouth down to our butthole and how we transform food inside the gut. The next section of Gut is dedicated to microbiome – the collection of microorganisms that live in our body such as bacteria in the gut, and how important it is to our health.

The science of microbiome is still in its infancy. There is still a lot to experiment, study and research, but it is a fascinating field. I did not even think about the possibility that our gut has a nervous system on its own! Nor did I even think that bacteria in the gut can affect weight, what food we can eat, allergies and so on. And when you think about it, there must be a reason why we say things like: I am gutted, or my gut says.

I really like the book and would recommend it if you were to find a great weekend read. Here are a few highlights:

Every time we go to the toilet, it’s a masterly performance – two nervous systems working tirelessly in tandem to dispose of our waste as discreetly and hygienically as possible. Each of the two sphincters looks after the interests of a difference nervous system. The outer muscle is a faithful servant of our consciousness. When our brain deems it an unsuitable time to go to the toilet, the external sphincter obeys and stays closed with all its might. The internal sphincter represents our unconscious inner world. Whether Great-Aunt Bertha approves of breaking wind or not is no concern of the sphincter ani internus.

There are four small points in your mouth. Two of them are located on the inside of your cheeks, opposite your upper molders, more or less in the middle. The little nubs, which doctors call the parotid papillae, are found in the same position in everybody’s mouth. These four little nubs supply your mouth with saliva. Saliva is basically filtered blood. The salivary glands sieve the blood, keeping back the red blood cells, which are needed in our arteries, not in our mouth. But calcium, hormones and some products of our immune system enter the saliva from the blood.

Our saliva contains one painkiller that is stronger than morphine. It is called opiorphin and was only discovered in 2006. When we chew, we produce more saliva and with it more of such analgesic substances, which explains why a sore throat often feels better after a meal and even minor sores in the oral cavity hurt less.

The most important phase of our digestion takes place in the small intestine, where the maximum surface area meets the maximum reduction of our food down to the tiniest pieces. Canny as ever, Mother Nature here makes use of the fact that all living things are made out of the same basic ingredients: sugar molecules, amino acids, and fats. Everything we eat comes from living things – this biological level, there is no difference between an apple, a tree and a cow.

There is a certain foodstuff we can eat to nudge the gut wall into action: fiber. Dietary fiber is not digested in the small intestine and can knock on the wall of the large intestine in a friendly way to say there is someone here who wants to be shown the way out. There are two kinds of fiber: water-soluble and insoluble. The latter is better at stimulating movement through the digestive system, but it can often cause stomachaches. Water-solule fiber does not provide such a powerful push, but it does make the contents of the gut softer and easier to deal with. Nature’s design is rather cleve: the skins of many fruits contain large amounts of insoluble fiber, while the flesh of the fruit contains more soluble fiber.

Stress is thought to be among the most important stimuli discussed by the brain and the gut. When the brain senses a major problem (such as time pressure or anger), it naturally wants to solve it. To do so, it needs energy, which it borrows mainly from the gut. When that happens, the gut is forced to send unpleasant signals to the brain to say it is no longer willing to be exploited. This negative stimulus can cause fatigue, loss of appetite, general malaise or diarrhea.

If the gut has to continue to forego energy in favor of the brain, its health will eventually suffer. A reduced blood supply and a thinner protective layer of mucus weaken the gut walls. Periods of stress mean the brain borrows energy and as any housekeeper knows, good budgeting is always better than running up too many debts.

People are slowly beginning to realize that the vast majority of bacteria are harmless or even helpful. Some facts are now known to science. Our gut’s microbiome can weigh up to 4.5 pounds (2kgs) and contains about 100 trillion bacteria. One-thirty-second of an ounce (1 gram) of feces contains more bacteria than there are people on Earth.

Skewed proportions of the different bacteria in our gut have been detected in those suffering from obesity, malnutrition, nervous diseases, depression and chronic digestive problems. In other words, when something is wrong with our microbiome, something goes wrong with us.

One person might have stronger nerves than another because she has a better stock of vitamin B-producing bacteria. Another person might be able to deal easily with bit of bread mold eaten by mistaken. Yet another might have a tendency to gain weight because the “chubby” bacteria in his gut feed him a bit too willingly.

Breast-feeding can help shift the balance toward the beneficial and reduce the risk of a later gluten intolerance, for example. A baby’s first population of gut bacteria prepares the way for the mature population by removing oxygen and electrons from the intestine. As soon as the environment is free of oxygen, the more typical bacteria of the gut can start to settle there.

When it comes to the nutrition it contains, breast milk provides everything that dietary scientists believe children need in order to thrive – it is the best dietary supplement ever. It contains everything, knows everything and can do everything necessary for a child’s well-being. And, as if that weren’t enough, it has the added advantage of passing on a bit of Mom’s immune system to her offspring.