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Mary Roach takes the reader into some of the ins and outs of our gastrointestinal tract. Beginning with what goes in and what goes out. Each chapter explores a different aspect what happens to our food as it travels this path through our bodies, like smell and taste, chewing, stomach activity, things occurring in our large and small intestines, and the rectum. Most chapters include conversations with doctors and researchers, relating their experiences doing research and/or treating patients.

Here are a few comments I made on specific pieces of text based on notes that I took while I was reading. Numbers in brackets [] are page numbers based on Kindle pagination.

[8] “But a man alone with a sandwich appears as what he is: an organism satisfying a need.� What, women don’t eat?

[48] “Mexico eats our brains . . .� Not the best of choices as one could catch a spongiform encephalopathies disease like the infamous mad cow disease, but in human beings it is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by the practice of eating human brains.

[113] “Greeks spit on babies. They spit on brides. They spit on themselves. Though no actual gob is launched. ‘Most people,� explains Numen, ‘say ‘ftou ftou ftou� instead of actually spitting.’� Reminds me of a scene in The Fiddler on the Roof where Tevye’s wife, Golde, does this to ward off the evil eye.

[193] “Or they are ‘bathroom-averse�; they’re reluctant to use public restrooms because someone might hear or smell them, or because they’re anxious about germs.� This is one reason people get constipate by holding in their poop. But transgender persons may also be bathroom-averse do to fear of assault or confrontation to their right to be there, not the stink of their deposits.

An interesting read. However, I find her reputation for humor in how she writes is not so well earned according to this one particular reader. I found this true with another book of hers: Stiff Also, it was more of a stitching together of a bunch of vignettes instead of process by process digestion of food and its waste by products elimination.

For a look at our alimentary tract not a bad read. I would suggest those squeamish about such things that maybe you would like this book to pass you by.