Book SummaryGut, by Giulia Enders

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Gut

In Gut, scientist and author Giulia Enders explains how the digestive system works and how it impacts our health. She maintains that the gut is a system of organs as complex and intricate as the brain. By understanding how our guts work, she believes that we can live healthier, happier lives.

Enders published the book in 2014 (with an updated edition in 2018), in response to what she saw as a lack of publicly-available information on the gut. As a doctoral student studying gastroenterology, she noticed that people often think of the gut as “gross” or taboo, and she wanted to challenge this view. She also wanted to share useful scientific discoveries about the digestive system with the general public. (Shortform note: This guide refers to the 2018 edition of the book.)

Public Discourse on the Gut

Even before Enders published Gut, public interest in the digestive system was on the rise. In the early 2000s, major news outlets such as The New York Times began to...

Gut Summary Part 1: How the Gut Works

According to Enders, the gut is an intricate system of organs, muscles, and bacteria. Its job is to break down the food that you eat into nutrients. Your body then uses these nutrients to store energy, build important structures, and keep you healthy.

The Three Nutritional Building Blocks

Before exploring how the gut breaks down food, we first need to introduce the three nutritional building blocks: carbohydrates, fat, and amino acids (which we get from proteins). These building blocks are also known as macronutrients (macro- meaning “large”) because our bodies need large amounts of them to survive.

On a molecular level, Enders explains, different combinations of the three macronutrients make up all of the food that we eat. Your gut’s job is to break your food down into those tiny molecular components. Then, as we’ll discuss, it makes sure these molecules get absorbed into the bloodstream so your body can use them to fuel your cells, store energy, and build important structures such as hormones, muscles, and DNA.

Let’s explore each macronutrient in detail.

Building Block #1: Carbohydrates

According to Enders, **carbohydrates primarily serve as our...

Gut Summary Part 2: Microbiomes and Bacteria

In the previous section, we discussed how the gut’s organs work together to digest food and keep us healthy—but our organs are only one part of the picture. As we mentioned in Part 1, we have huge populations of bacteria in our guts. These bacteria play a vital role in digestion, and emerging science suggests that they also have other important effects. These include strengthening our immune system and possibly impacting our mental health.

In this section, we’ll further explore the role of these bacteria populations, how we develop them, and how we can maintain a healthy gut.

The Role of Bacteria in the Gut

Our bodies are filled with and covered in microbes—tiny organisms that can only be seen through a microscope. Taken together, these microscopic organisms form what scientists call your microbiome, an ecosystem of particles operating inside your body.

Almost all of the bacteria in your microbiome live in your gut. While scientists are still discovering everything they do, it’s clear that these bacteria serve several important functions, including keeping us healthy and providing us with nutrients.

Let’s take a closer look at these functions of our gut...

Shortform Exercise: What Have You Learned About the Gut?

Enders discusses how each organ in the digestive system functions, from the mouth to the large intestine.

Consider Enders’s discussion of the organs in the gut. What information in this section surprised you? Why?

Shortform Exercise: How Do You Support Your Gut Health?

According to Enders, maintaining a healthy gut helps strengthen your immune system, provide you with nutrients, and prevent diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

What, if anything, do you currently do to support your gut health, and why? (For example, you might take probiotics or prebiotics, eat foods high in fiber, or take antibiotics only when required.) If you don’t currently do anything to support your gut health: Why not?