Mary Roach’s book Gulp (Adventures on the alimentary canal) presents a series of adventures in gastroenterological studies. It is an investigation of our digestive system right from the mouth to the anus. It is simply an exploration to the human digestive system. The book gives an in depth analysis from the time we smell food, taste food, swallow, digest and finally excrete the undigested food material. Roach writes about the alimentary canal, which is a long tube from the mouth to the rear, in a way that makes science such an interesting topic. Where many people have seen writing about the digestive system from the time of smelling of food to excretion as a taboo, Mary Roach managed to powerfully execute it in Gulp. Roach finds it fascinating what we always view as disgusting, scientific obsessions and bizarre experiments. The book takes readers on a ride down the alimentary canal.
Mary Roach starts her story with an inquiry into eating, digestion and elimination with its relationship to smell and taste. The story begins with the nose that is most of the times underrated organ in relation to eating. Roach states that smell is where the taste begins and that the sense of smell is important to the strange science of flavor consulting. She then progressively goes to the tasting, to chewing, swallowing, and digesting then to excreting. Roach further explains further about saliva and our unending passion for crunchy and crispy foods. In discussing the topics of flatulence, Roach gives an analogy of how a python that had swallowed a gazelle could let out hydrogen gas which could catch fire. This analogy explains the concept of flatulence explicitly. She approaches the topic of digestion with the stories of the people and scientists who spent their lives studying the process. She goes further on to the olive oil tasting lab and pet food scientists and comes up with the findings that our taste buds are impacted more by smell than we usually realize.
Mary Roach has a love for exploration. She employs the technique of doing original research by talking to experts and participation in experiments. She managed to test pet food flavoring, sniffed and gargled olive oil, and managed to visit a prison facility to learn what can be smuggled through the anus. Towards the end of the digestive journey, very strange facts emerge. At the California prison, she learnt of an inmate who managed to get two boxes of staples, sharpener blades, pencil sharpener and three jumbo rider rings up his “prison wallet”, the prison slang for the rectum. She also goes on further to investigate what the amount of damage a terrorist would do if he were to surgically implant an explosive before boarding a plane. Talking to Elvis Presley’s personal doctor, she discovered that the star had intractable constipation that led to the condition mega colon (a colon two or three times the size of the normal) which led to his death. Once again Roach in Gulp has made science accessible as in her other books. Roach’s love for exploration, talking to experts and hand’s on experimentation in Gulp gives the research the quality that it needs.
Gulp is quite an interesting book giving answers to some of the unexplained mysteries. A question like how comes some people do not eat certain foods that are perfectly accepted in other cultures? This boils down to matters taste and smell. It is with no doubt that Roach did an extensive research for the book by traversing Europe speaking to experts and referring to medical history. It is a quality book with a perfectly done research that conveys message in a humorous manner that can be easily understood by many.
Works cited
Roach, Mary. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. , 2013. Print
