REVIEW ´ TEXASBEERGUIDE.COM Õ Mary Roach
I can't recommend this book highly enough. Roach truly is the funniest, best science writer I've ever had the pleasure to read. Her inquisitive mind doesn't always follow a linear path & the side tracks are illuminating.
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While a seaman might survive the suction and swallow, his arrival in a sperm whale's stomach would seem to present a new set of problems.*
[footnote]
*I challenge you to find a more innocuous sentence containing the words sperm, suction, swallow, and any homophone of seaman. And then call me up on the homophone and read it to me.
- Mary Roach in Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
Jonah got swallowed by a big fish? The above quote is in the part of the book discussing that. The good news is that whales have a fore stomach with no digestive juices. The bad news is that it is like a gizzard on some birds & crushes the food into manageable sizes. Sharks will also swallow prey whole, but their stomachs do have digestive juices & they do digest living prey as three sea turtles found out to their detriment.
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Yes, much of the book was about gross stuff, but it was seriously interesting. We're basically an evolved digestive system. The alimentary canal is the core of the man-beast. It creates our energy & all the rest of the body is simply a way to spread the wealth & get a return investment to feed it more efficiently. We rely on (live for?) our gut & the sales pitch we're subjected to daily is full of misinformation & outright lies.
You think I go too far? The first third of the book is devoted to what we eat & why. Smell & taste are not processed by the frontal lobes of our brain. Did you know that people who lose their sense of taste & smell can actually starve to death because they can't swallow? It's that important.
Our body's sensors can get screwed up & we can develop bad habits, but it's often good to give in to a craving. I never thought much of food restrictions & never subscribed to any fad diets, thankfully. I always try to eat a fairly balanced diet of what I want & apparently that's pretty much a good thing since everything is working well & I've been the same weight since I was 20. Maybe liver tastes yucky to me because I shouldn't eat it. Yeah, I'm going with that.
Why do some diets work for some people & not for others? Apparently, each gut is as unique as a fingerprint. By the amount & types of bacteria in it, your family could be traced since Momma seeds yours. What you digest & how is also covered to some extent. This isn't a dietary book, though. There are no clear cut answers to the individual, but there is a lot of overall knowledge.
I never knew how much misinformation was floating about. The chewing fad of the early 1900's was disproved a century or more (Roach gives dates, I just have a bad memory.) before it was suggested & even implemented in some cases by our government, basically at the behest of a well connected con man. But that's just one of many cases she discusses throughout the book. Many are still in play today.
The stomach is amazingly ductile, but people can blow it up. Interestingly enough, it's never happened to a competitive eater. There are several sections devoted to this wondrous organ & its abilities. Really interesting chapters devoted to comparing what it can digest & how fast it moves food along, too.
The small intestine gathers most of good stuff out of what we swallow and the colon gets a little more plus the water, but it does some important digestion of its own. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't anything about the gall bladder, but my wife's problems with that organ taught us that it isn't considered part of the digestive system, even though bile is very important in the process. Be warned. Your stomach doctor might scope you through both ends, but they don't do gall bladders at all. It's like the step child of the digestive system. They just tell you to take Maalox & ignore it after that.
She also explores the similarities & differences between our digestive system & that of herbivores a bit. I didn't know that rats & rabbits processed their food for many vitamins in their colon (B's & K). Process, but not absorb. Whoops! This is why they HAVE to eat their own poop. (Bunnies suddenly aren't nearly as cute, are they?) They're severely stunted if diapered. More illuminating are the comparisons between us, gorillas (vegetarians) & monkeys.
Probiotics? The overwhelming majority are just marketing. The bacteria you need most are anaerobic (can't live in an oxygen environment) so you won't find them in a yogurt cup nor will they survive the trip through the stomach. There is a way to restore them, but neither the insurance nor pharmaceutical companies are happy with it. You probably won't be either, unless you're suffering from severe colon problems & changing your own diapers a dozen times a day. Two words: Fecal Transplant. It often works, too.
There are a couple of chapters devoted to farts. Gross! Yeah, but figuring out what makes them stop smelling would sure be nice, wouldn't it? I've been in a couple of elevators that I barely made it out of with my lunch intact. So some people study them, even make synthetic farts. Eating charcoal doesn't help - it's absorbancy is used up way before it gets to the colon where the smelly gases are generated. So just how do they deodorize them? Well, Beano DOES help with beans, but they've worked out some other ways, too. Unfortunately, no one will read about them in normal magazine ads. Those publications say the yuck factor is too strong. You can find out about them in this book, though.
There's another quote in the book about the anus being a marvel of engineering beyond man's technical ability in that it is able to handle gas, liquids, & solids on command with aplomb. (Usually, hopefully!) So calling someone an asshole is really talking them up!
This has gotten way too long, sorry. It's fascinating & I only touched a few of the high points. There's a lot of excellent knowledge here & only Roach's delicate touch could make it so readable, even at lunch time, about the only time I have to read during the spring.
I'd also like to tip my hat to Ed, Mary's husband. You're a lucky man, but you must have a great sense of humor & the hide of a rhino. Seriously, she explores whether or not he can kill her in the night with beer farts if she sleeps with her head under the covers! That's almost as bad as his trip to England in Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex where he got to spoon with Mary while a doctor used a sonogram to see how things fit together during coitus. Ed, you're a better man than I!
;-) Paperback I've finished the book. I'm left with the feeling that lies somewhere between TMI, an author's perverse, small-boy like joy in slightly shocking the adults by talking about farts and turds, and actually being interested in the transformation from a Michelin chef plate of food into, moments later, a disgusting saliva-covered bolus no one even wants to look at.
The book is punctuated with many small revelations that won't change my life in any way but are good to drop into a conversation for that OMG moment on someone else's face. Like, Elvis Presley died of constipation, the straining of which brought on a fatal heart attack. Poor man had been constipated all his life and never travelled without his Fleet and laxatives. Judy Garland and Lenny Bruce also died on the loo, but more mundanely (for celebrities) of drugs. Catherine the Great also died on the toilet in one version of her final exit. In the other she was crushed by the horse she was shagging. This isn't in the book btw. Just trivia I picked up along the way.
If you prefer to think that all that goes on beneath your skin should remain shrouded in a little mystery and want that aforementioned Michelin chef plate of food to remain in your mind as an artfully-decorated dish of delicate flavours, then don't read the book. Because it's not about the plate of food but the turd that comes out the end incorporating spit, bitter green bile and the slime of mucus and how it got that way. If you don't want to know all about that, then don't read the book. You won't enjoy it. Don't say I didn't warn you.
3.5 stars
Paperback
When it comes to literature about eating, science has been a little hard to hear amid the clamor of cuisine. Just as we adorn sex with the fancy gold-leaf filigree of love, so we dress the need for sustenance in the finery of cooking and connoisseurship…Yes, men and women eat meals. But they also ingest nutrients. They grind and sculpt them into a moistened bolus that is delivered via a stadium wave of sequential contractions, into a self-kneading sack of hydrochloric acid and then dumped into a tubular leach field, where is it converted into the most powerful taboo in human history. [no, not wearing white after Labor Day]If I had my own university I would see to it that Mary Roach received an honorary doctorate in Scatology. She does seem to have a predilection for investigating elements of human functions that would be considered indelicate in polite company. Of course, to my not-so-inner-Beavis, this is mother’s milk. (Oh, god, no. Is she going to look into that next?) So far, Ms. Roach, a science writer, has managed to process information and squeeze out books on dead bodies (Stiff), the afterlife (Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife ), some of the more personal elements of space travel (Packing for Mars) and sex (Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex). In Gulp, Ms. Roach looks into the details of how, during our corporal existence, we fuel the engines that allow us to scoot between planets or partners, and which make it possible to contemplate what should be done with our remains.
Mary Roach - image from The Reading Lists
Mary takes us on a lively cruise down the alimentary canal, which lies somewhere between Love Canal and Root Canal, but with more jokes. Really though, a canal is what we are. Stuff in, stuff out, and an increasingly complex control mechanism to make sure it keep flowing. Philosophy? Religion? Civilization? Whatever. Feed me. Let me poop and pee and the rest is gravy. Because, you know, if you can’t or don’t eat, everything else is moot. (Insert anorexic model joke here) If you can’t get rid of the final product, everything else is really nastily moot. So, while our trip with Captain Mary may lack the derring do of the good ship Proteus, (and the wooden leg of that other well-known cruise) it is a fantastic journey from here to there, and most definitely not back again.
As with any sightseeing outing, your tour guide will point out the structures along the way that are considered to be of interest. All ahead full and pay no attention to those white particles dangling from the tree roots along the side. We begin our look inside by examining how smell affects the way things taste to us. If you smell a rat, it might be because of its diet, of which more later. Our first stop is the nose, along with our sense of smell, which functions as the body’s TSA, with its own list of items that may not be brought aboard.
Hold on for a bit as the captain steers the boat into an unexpected cul-de-sac. While there, you will pick up some info on the food you get for your cats and dogs. Ok, backing out and here we are, looking at the appetite for organ meat in various places and cultures, what is good about it and how many of us consider it nasty. It is in this chapter that we discover that Narwhal skin turns out to be rather tasty.
Around the bend and down the hatch, Ms. Roach spends some time pondering the question of whether, like one jaw-weary fellow in 1903, we might believe that by chewing one’s food very, very thoroughly, one can gain greater nutrition from it than someone could by chewing it a more typical number of times. And while you are mulling that over, Roach goes poking into the strange case of Dr. William Beaumont, the researcher, and Alexis St Martin, his personal guinea pig, the proud possessor of an ill-healed and surprisingly non-fatal gunshot wound to the torso. It scarred up oddly and left the enterprising Doctor Beaumont direct access to Mister St Martin’s stomach. Let the testing begin, and go on and go on. Hey, come back here. I’m not done. For a feature length look at this, up that tributary on the left, you might poke your nose into Open Wound: The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beaumont by Jason Karlawish. Next, Captain Mary points out the surprising relationship between spit and laundry detergent, actually between spit (there are two kinds, neither of which is called warm) and a lot of things, and why we like our foods to be crispy and crunchy. And if you were wondering if this little excursion included the risk of being devoured by large living creatures, Roach can fill you in on the odds of surviving inside a leviathan’s stomach.
From Heidelblog.net
There are plenty more sights to be seen on this journey, subjects like ways of eating oneself to death, the explosive danger of intestinal gas,
(“I know a case, this was fifteen years ago, where the man ate a huge meal and then took an inordinate amount of Alka-Seltzer.” [Dyspepsia expert Mike] Jones made an exploding sound into the telephone. It was like that Monty Python sketch, the Wafer-Thin Mint, where the guy is gorging himself and finally he goes, “I’ll just have this one wafer-thin mint…’”)
From GIPHY.COM
and the booming field of flatulence.
From Flixter.com
(I bet you thought I was gonna go with the infamous bean scene from Blazing Saddles. I am much too classy for that. You will have to go there on your own. Just click this.)
And did you know that it was not only possible to ignite farts, but that there are some people who have flammable belches? I won't have what he's having.
Roach gets to the bottom of the practice known as keistering, and hooping. Prison is a likely lab for such research into the use of the rectum as a cargo hold. The storage capacity is impressive, to the point that one inmate was referred to as OD, as in Office Depot, for his hooping capacity, actually used for keistering office supplies. I’m not using that stapler.
And you will be amazed at how much of a rat’s diet consists of material that…um…emerged from the rat. So on spotting a certain rodent in Orlando, try to stop yourself from asking what it is in that taco he is toting. And you do not want to be downwind of that breath.
The colon comes in for considerable examination, and figures in a surprising theory for the cause of death of a king. She comes clean in a look at the history, reasons for and abuses of enemas. And, of course Mary lets loose when she gets the scoop on pooping. She even notes a chart that delineates the seven different types. You know you want to see it.
Bristol Stool Chart
Ok. Time to squeeze yourself off the boat. Be sure to tip the guide.
Roach always delights in reporting on names that are particularly apt.
my gastroenterologist is Dr. Terdiman, and the author of the journal article “Gastrointestinal Gas” is J. Fardy, and the headquarters of the International Academy of Proctology was Flushing, New York.I suppose the academy might be better off in Richmond, VA, in the neighborhood called Shockoe Bottom, or maybe in Proberta, CA.
A couple of minor gripes. This book could really have used an index. And the chapter on feeding Spot and Fluffy, while interesting, seemed a bit of a digression from the main journey.
That said, reading Mary Roach is akin to the pure joy one experiences from things like Ripley’s Believe It or Not, with the benefit of knowing that there is no smoke and mirror involvement. Reality is soooooo weird. And we have Mary Roach to thank for refilling our occasionally dwindling mental storehouse of disturbing images, (You will never think of Elvis quite the same way after reading this book) and fascinating scientific facts, like the possible origin for the belief in fire-breathing dragons or the medical efficacy of fecal transplants.
There is never a doubt that Mary Roach will make you laugh and teach you things you never knew before. What could be better? Ok, I mean aside from the Blazing Saddles clip.
==============================EXTRA STUFF
Here is the full vid of the wafer thin mint bit, aka Mr. Creosote. Don’t even try watching this if you get queasy easily. It requires a very strong stomach or a very weak mind.
The May 2013 issue of Smithsonian Magazine features an article by Roach, The-Gut-Wrenching-Science Behind the World’s Hottest Peppers and there is another piece in that issue that may be of interest, Why You Like What You Like by Tom Vanderbilt. BTW, the articles are named differently in the magazine and on the web site.
Town Hall Seattle has an excellent audio presentation by Roach
Mary is interviewed on NPR
And in the New York Times
There is a wonderful interview with Mary on The Daily Show, a two parter. Here is Part 1 and here Part 2
Janet Maslin’s NY Times review
Although it shows a pub date of April 2016, this one appeared in my feed on July 19, 2018 - From Greatist.com - Poop Health: Is Your Poop Normal? Here's the No. 1 Reason to Check Your No. 2 - by Maria Hart - gotta love their take on the Bristol Chart, and no, it is not an image of a balanced daily diet.
Other Mary Roach books we have enjoyed
-----2021 - Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
-----2016 - Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War
-----2010 - Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
-----2006 - Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
-----2004 - Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Finally, inspired by the Bristol Chart, which is not at all related to The Bristol Stomp, and visits to US National Parks, I composed my own bit of classic literary poetry to express a grave concern among travelers.
Hiking Boot Maintenance
Be careful where you step
When you go walking in the dark
Because of all the people
Pooping pellets in the park.
Thank you, thank you very much. Paperback This is a book not to devour, but to take in small bites, slowly savoring and digesting every funny phrase and interesting fact.
This is only the first reviewer to use lots of bad puns. Be afraid. Be very afraid...
Update: I simply adored this book and found it to be very tasty--OK, so maybe parts were nausea inducing but for the most part it was fascinating stuff.
And, please note my prediction that poop transplants are going to be the next big thing. Yup, you heard it right, fecal transferences are being done as we speak. Now aren't you glad you read this?
Oh, and one more: This book is bitingly funny in places. The footnotes are worth the price of the book. Paperback This is a journey of a different kind. Sort of like an Eat, Pray, Love for the digestively curious. So I guess that would make it Belch, Gurgle, Fart? Paperback
Mary Roach nos lleva a un viaje inolvidable… a través del tubo digestivo, esa parte fundamental de nuestro cuerpo que a veces se convierte en un tabú.
¿Por qué la comida crujiente nos resulta tan atractiva?
¿Por qué es tan difícil encontrar palabras para definir sabores y olores?
¿Por qué el estómago no se digiere a sí mismo? ¿Cuánto se puede comer antes de “explotar”? ¿Puede matar el estreñimiento?
¿Mató a Elvis…?
Lleno de curiosidades y anécdotas, pasearemos entre laboratorios de pruebas de sabor de alimentos para mascotas, trasplantes fecales, o viajaremos a un estómago en vivo para observar qué ocurre allí con la comida. De la mano de Roach viajamos por el mundo para conocer asesinos, científicos locos, exorcistas (que han llegado a administrar agua bendita rectal) o terroristas…
Al igual que todos los libros de Roach, Glup trata no solo de cuerpos humanos, sino de seres humanos. Glup: Aventuras en el canal alimentario
Hilarious, informative. Roach has a very original voice and way of handling scientific information. I plan to read everything she's written. Paperback Audiobook....narrated by Emily Woo Zeller ** and ** my Autographed copy by Mary Roach that I got from Mary the 3rd time we met in 2013.
I‘ve read “Bonk”, “Packing For Mars”, and “Stiff”....( my personal favorite). I own these ‘signed’ books and have thoroughly enjoyed her ‘book-readings’ and personal conversations.
Mary Roach is funny and fearless - totally a delightful human being - and must be the most famous brilliant-goof-ball science writer on the planet....[at least in the Bay Area she rules with her hilarious & informative science material].
As you can see I didn’t rush into reading *GULP*. And several years back when our local book club wanted to pick a Mary Roche book for a monthly discussion.... my vote was easy: “Any book BUT Gulp”....’please’. I was seriously avoiding childhood & adult unpleasant memories which I knew I’d re-visit.
Being born with a gut disease of my own - Hirschsprung’s Disease - still a daily challenge today - I wasn’t so sure I’d call reading *GULP* an adventure when looking at the Alimentary Canal.....(our digestive tract from our mouth to our anus).
I knew Mary Roach WOULD NOT CUT CORNERS OR SPARE US FROM THE *GROSS FACTOR*....just to be ‘appropriately dignified’. However.... I’m glad I finally read it ....(interesting enough as I write this I’m also having colon surgery tomorrow - biopsy & exploratory- that I’ve put off for at least a decade: to explore ‘new’ options)...for ‘my condition’.
There is a chapter in this book called “Up Theirs”.....the alimentary canal as criminal accomplice. The entire chapter gave me the willies - both listening to the Audiobook and reading my physical book and the *footnotes* (fascinating/ true stories tidbits).
Here is one example tidbit: ( about contraband smugglers):
“OVER A THOUSAND POUNDS OF TOBACCO AND HUNDREDS OF CELL PHONES ARE RECTALLY SMUGGLED INTO CALIFORNIA STATE PRISONS EACH YEAR”. I’m thinking....”Are you assholes NUTS? Try living with what I live with and you might not take your fucking rectum for granted like that”.
Given my worried squeamish thoughts about reading GULP - I was happily surprised that my stomach wasn’t churning the entire time. Oh....it ‘was’ creepy knots at times, but I guffawed wholeheartedly, too. I studied digestive biology -
years ago in college.....
But.....
I don’t remember learning this much in the way of stinky details - about people - about animals - the function of bodily fluids - and many other taboo topics - to the extent Mary teaches us and certainly not nearly with anyone teaching with such INFECTIOUS ENTHUSIASM. She seemed literally excited telling us that the meals we eat -organic or not - are simply chemicals. Smells, tastes, food preferences, poop, the ins and outs of our intestinal track - Mary Roach was ALIVE - CONFIDENT - and totally in her element living - breathing - GULP-LADY...our spokeswoman on the digestive tract.
I already knew about Elvis Presley’s death by constipation - ( contribution of it anyway), way before GULP.... BUT NOT ALL OF IT. I ‘didn’t’ know that Elvis actually had Hirschsprung’s disease. Well- F#CK.... of course - makes sense. Why in the hell didn’t I figure that out myself YEARS AGO? This is a topic I know ‘too much’ about. I was born with Hirschsprung’s. But - unlike what Elvis suffered with - AND HE HAD TO HAVE SUFFERED - no wonder he turned to drugs - the impaction obstructed affected at least 50-60% of his colon. Wow! That’s a lot....and to think of all the years he lived with it ‘before’ he died. His life had to be a living hell - no matter how many fans he had.
With Elvis - it was never 100% certain if it was drugs or genetics behind his condition. They would have needed more information about his childhood.
This chapter was admittedly uncomfortable for me to read.
In most cases - Hirschsprung’s ‘does’ come from birth, (like me), .....but with Elvis and his lifestyle habits- it wasn’t clear.
GULP is packed FULL with information to digest. The research is top notch! It’s fascinating....and frightening.....yet Mary Roach delivers a wealth of knowledge with humor - wit - and charm.
Absolutely a close *TIE* for my favorite ( important) book written by Mary - with *STIFF*.....The Human Life of Human Cadavers
Note of caution: not to be read while eating a meal.
The AUDIOBOOK IS TERRIFIC.....BUT ‘with’ the physical book - it’s a great way to go.
Both have advantages. Paperback If your body features a digestive tract, consider this book a must-read.
However, here are some caveats:
1) I strongly advise you not to read this book within 1 hour before or 2 hours after eating.
2) I strongly advise you not to read this book in any room used for cooking or eating (such as your kitchen or dining room). Instead—even though this might not be acceptable by some etiquette books—I strongly advise you to keep this book in the bathroom and read it while sitting on the john. (Your bathroom, more precisely, any room that contains a toilet, is not only the most appropriate place to read this book, it will also prove convenient in case your stomach should react to any contents of this book.)
3) I strongly advise you not to read this book while you have any stomach upset unless you have eaten something bad which you might wish your stomach to give up.
Provided that you adhere to the above heartfelt advice, I can only say, “Enjoy!” or rather “Bon appetite!”
After reading this book, I am confident that I am now more educated about the human alimentary canal than the average general health care provider. Mary Roach let me gain a lot of (literal!) insights. And last but not least, I am now happy to announce that my digestive tract is probably the best part of my body.
For a more profound and also illustrated take of this book, please read Will Byrnes review. Here is the link:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Paperback 3.5 Stars
Not the most appetizing way to learn about the ins and outs (literally) of the hows and whys of what happens the second food enters our mouth to ultimately, its final destination but interesting enough.
Points for a well researched book, this was peppered with nuggets of history and bits of humor. I feel quite enlightened in all things digestion and for sure, am not at all hungry. Paperback WARNING: Sometimes I have the mind of a 12 year old boy. Beware of reading this review if farts and bodily functions gross you out.
More like 2.5 stars
Mary Roach may have that mindset too. So far I've read books by her detailing what happens with dead bodies and more than you ever want to know about your Alimentary canal.
I love having random facts in my head. My husband hates that fact about me. This book added in a way in which he may never be the same again.
We tackle our bodies food from intake to outake in this book with several detours into what happens along that route.
Ms. Roach also enters into our prison system to learn how far your rectum can stretch. Hey, it's all about the science buddy.
For example:
The slang for the rectum is prison wallet, but it could be Radio Shack. An inmate was caught wit two boxes of staples, a pencil sharpener, sharpener blades, and three jumbo binder rings in his rectum. He became known as OD, for Office Depot.
Facts I discovered during the reading of this book including the origin of the oldest stories of fire-breathing dragons-You gotta read it.
The fact that Elvis did die on the potty..and why.
The gases our bodies make could in fact blow up something in large enough quantities.
I'm sure I'll quote these and much more to my poor suffering family.
I'm blaming Mary Roach.
One more because I couldn't resist and you made it through the review:
Paperback