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  • Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach book cover
  • Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach book cover
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Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal

by Mary Roach

The science and surprises of digestion

$15.83 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

The science and surprises of digestion

Mary Roach uses the alimentary canal as a route into questions about how people eat, taste, and process food. The book ranges from the appeal of crunchy textures and the difficulty of describing smells to the stomach’s defenses and the limits of how much it can hold. Its investigations bring together scientific research, unusual sites—including a pet-food taste-testing lab—and encounters with people whose work or beliefs intersect with digestion. The subject is human physiology, but the scope also includes the social customs, taboos, and practical concerns that gather around the body.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in human anatomy and physiology, especially digestion.
  • Readers curious about the social and cultural questions surrounding food and bodily functions.
  • Readers who enjoy science writing organized around unusual research questions and real-world investigations.

Themes

Digestion and human physiologyFood, taste, and smellBodily taboos and social customsScientific investigation

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"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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