Gulp - Mary Roach

   2013; 341 pages.  Full Title : Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal.  New Author? : No.    Genre : Non-Fiction; Science; Anatomy; Research.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

    Hey, let’s go on a cruise!  I've found a great one to take; they call it the Adventures on the Alimentary Canal.  It doesn’t stop at the exotic Islets of Langerhans, but that’s the only place missing.  The spots it does stop are all fascinating locations.  Oh, and be sure to pack your own lunch for the trip.

    We start at the Mouth of the canal, and are treated to a number of “tastings”, including wine, olive oil (say what?), and cat food (say what doubled?).  A fun time will be had by all.

    The next port-of-call is the Stomach, where we’ll consume most of the food we brought, and try not to eat ourselves to death.  Then it’s on to a place called Colon, where we’ll finish up with our meal and hope that it gives us gas.

    Our final stop will be the Rectum, where all good things must end.  Please exit via the rear door.

What’s To Like...

    I liked the way Gulp is structured, which mimics the order given in the above teaser, save that the first “stop” is actually the Nose, where we learn just how much the aroma of something impacts what we perceive as its taste.  Although best described as a Science Non-Fiction tome, Gulp is not really a technical reference book.  Instead Mary Roach focuses on the research, both current and historical, being done on various parts of the digestive tract, and the scientific answers to some popular alimentary urban legends, such as:

    What really was the most likely cause of Elvis’s all-too-early death?

    Why do dogs stick their heads out the car window?

    If you swallow a live animal (say, a snake, slug, or toad), can it eat its way out of you again?  (Like in the movie “Alien”).

    The research projects, past and present, that Mary Roach uncovers are both fascinating and bizarre, and too numerous to mention here.  Let’s just say that being a “taste-tester” and volunteering to donate your own “specimens”, might not be worth the money they pay you.

    The book is divided into 17 chapters (plus a prologue), each with a catchy title and subtitle.  Some examples, and personal favorites, are:

Ch. 04.  The Longest Meal  (Can Thorough Chewing Lower the National Debt?)

Ch. 08.  The Big Gulp  (How to Survive Being Swallowed Alive.)

Ch. 11.  Up Theirs  (The Alimentary Canal as Criminal Accomplice)

Ch. 12.  Inflammable You (Fun with Hydrogen and Methane)

Ch. 16.  All Stopped Up  (Elvis Presley’s Megacolon and other Ruminations on Death by Constipation)

    There are relevant and interesting pictures at the start of each chapter.  The footnotes are witty and function well.  The text actually ends on page 318, with the remaining 23 pages being taken up by sections titled Acknowledgements, Bibliography, and Praise for Gulp.

    Overall, I thought Gulp was just as good as the other Mary Roach book I’ve read (reviewed here), even though here the subject matter wasn’t quite as alluring.  The “sciency” parts of Gulp were a delight for me since I’m a chemist by trade.  I was impressed by both the detail and the accuracy of the information about Hydrogen Sulfide (H₂S), a compound integral to the product made by the company I work for.

Excerpts...

    Bursting a stomach by overfilling is a nearly impossible feat, owing to a series of protective reflexes.  When the stomach stretches past a certain point – to accommodate a holiday dinner or chugged beer or the efforts of Swedish medical personnel – stretch receptors in the stomach wall cue the brain.  The brain, in turn, issues a statement that you are full and it is time to stop.  It will also, around the same time, undertake a transient lower esophageal sphincter relaxation, or TLESR, or burp.  (loc. 2092)

    You are what you eat, but more than that, you are how you eat.  Be thankful you’re not a sea anemone, disgorging lunch through the same hole that dinner goes in.  Be glad you’re not a grazer or a cud chewer, spending your life stoking the furnace.  Be thankful for digestive juices and enzymes, for villi, for fire and cooking, all the miracles that have made us what we are.  Khoruts gave us the example of the gorilla, a fellow ape held back by the energy demands of a less streamlined gut.  Like the cow, the gorilla lives by fermenting vast quantities of crude vegetation.  “He’s processing leaves all day.  Just sitting and chewing, and cooking inside.  There’s no room for great thoughts.”  (loc. 3875)

Kindle Details...

    Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal sells for $9.99, which, sadly, is pretty reasonable for any Science book.  Mary Roach has another half dozen e-books, ranging in price from $7.40 to $11.99.  It looks like her most-recent book was published in 2016, so I’m thinking it’s about time for her to bring out another one.  For the record, I got my copy of Gulp courtesy of my local digital library for free.  If you haven’t been to a library in years, you might be surprised at what they have to offer.

“We’re basically a highly evolved earthworm surrounding the intestinal tract.”  (loc. 3867)

    The quibbles are minor.  The descriptions of some of the people Mary Roach interviews (their hair styles, body builds, fashion tastes, etc.) didn’t really interest me.  And if you find that reading about things such as farts and poop is just "icky", you may find some of the latter chapters rather squeamish.  But any book about the comprehensive human digestive process will inherently have “less than savory” parts, thus it’s not surprising that some of the books and papers Mary Roach had to read as part of her research include:

    Studies of a Flatulent Patient

    Experimental Investigations to Determine Whether the Garden Slug Can Live in the Human Stomach

    A Lexicon of Pond-Raised Catfish Flavor Descriptors

    Fecal Odor of Sick Hedgehogs Mediates Olfactory Attraction of the Tick

    The Effect of Native Mexican Diet on Learning and Reasoning in White Rats

    Jackrabbit Should be Used to Ease Meat Shortage

    The Psychology of Animals Swallowed Alive

    Rectal Impaction Following Enema with Concrete Mix

    Cardio-vascular Events at Defecation: Are They Unavoidable?

    Straining Forces at Bowel Elimination

    Bon appetit, everyone!

    9 Stars.  One last curious trivia tidbit from the book.  Do you remember the “eat more bran and fiber” advertising campaigns from the 1980’s?  When’s the last time recently that you read or watched one?  Where did the bran/fiber craze go?  Mary Roach provides the answer.