Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ QUOTES

1 " Anyone who suffers from anxiety or depression should remember that an unhappy gut can be the cause of an unhappy mind. Sometimes, the gut has a perfect right to be unhappy, if it is dealing with an undetected food intolerance, for example. We should not always blame depression on the brain or on our life circumstances - there is much more to us than that. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

2 " The aim of cleaning, then, should be to reduce bacteria numbers—but not to zero. Even harmful bacteria can be good for us when the immune system uses them for training. A couple of thousand Salmonella bacteria in the kitchen sink are a chance for our immune system to do a little sightseeing. They become dangerous only when they turn up in greater numbers. Bacteria get out of hand when they encounter the perfect conditions: a protected location that is warm and moist with a supply of delicious food. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

3 " When we clean obsessively we do indeed get rid of everything, both bad and good. This can not be a good kind of cleanliness. As it happens the higher the hygiene standards in a country the higher that nations incidents of allergies and autoimmune diseases. The more sterile a household is the more its members will suffer from allergies and autoimmune diseases. Thirty years ago about 1 person in 10 had an allergy. Today that figure is 1 in 3. At the same time, the number of infections has not fallen significantly. This is not smart hygiene. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

4 " La salive, c'est du sang filtré, passé au chinois par les glandes salivaires qui retiennent les globules rouges, plus utiles dans nos veines que dans notre bouche. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

5 " Every day we live and every meal we eat we influence the great microbial organ inside us - for better or for worse. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

6 " Faced with a choiced between two different dishes, we make a decision based on what we happen to fancy at that moment. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

7 " The brain interprets the nerve impulses to form an image. It is not until that happens that we really see the piece of cake. This delicious news is then passed on to the systems that control salivation, with mouth-watering results. Similarly, the mere sight of a yummy treat also causes the stomach to produce some digestive juices in anticipation. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

8 " Almost nothing influences our gut bacteria as much as the food we eat. Preboiotics are the most powerful tool at our disposal if we want to support our good bacteria - that is, those that are already there and are there to stay. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

9 " Sweetness is not in itself unhealthy, we simply eat only the most unhealthy kind of sweetness. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

10 " Breast milk is so beneficial that a more or less well-nourished mother need not do any more than suckle her baby to ensure it is receiving a healthy diet. When it comes to the nutrients it contains, breast milk provides everything that dietary scientists believe children need in order to thrive - it is the best dietary supplement ever. It contains everything, knows everything, and can do everything necessary for a child's well-being. And, as if that weren't enough, it has the added advantage of passing on a bit of Mom's immune system to her offspring. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

11 " While some of us might be sitting around thinking “Nobody cares about me!”, our heart is currently working its seventeen-thousandth twenty-four-hour shift—and would have every right to feel a little forgotten when its owner thinks such thoughts. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

12 " Looking closer at human beings, it becomes clear that each of us is a world of our own. Our forehead is a breezy meadow, our elbows are arid wastelands, our eyes are salty lakes, and our gut is the most amazing giant forest ever, populated by the weirdest of creatures. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

13 " We humans have known since time immemorial something that science is only now discovering: our gut feeling is responsible in no small measure for how we feel. We are “scared shitless” or we can be “shitting ourselves” with fear. If we don’t manage to complete a job, we can’t get our “ass in gear.” We “swallow” our disappointment and need time to “digest” a defeat. A nasty comment leaves a “bad taste in our mouth.” When we fall in love, we get “butterflies in our stomach.” Our self is created in our head and our gut—no longer just in language, but increasingly also in the lab. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

14 " More than 95 percent of the world’s bacteria are harmless to humans. Many are extremely beneficial. Disinfectants have no place in a normal household. They are appropriate only if a family member is sick or the dog poops on the carpet. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

15 " Scientists are cautiously beginning to question the view that the brain is the sole and absolute ruler over the body. The gut not only possesses an unimaginable number of nerves, those nerves are also unimaginably different from those of the rest of the body. The gut commands an entire fleet of signaling substances, nerve-insulation materials, and ways of connecting. There is only one other organ in the body that can compete with the gut for diversity—the brain. The gut’s network of nerves is called the “gut brain” because it is just as large and chemically complex as the gray matter in our heads. Were the gut solely responsible for transporting food and producing the occasional burp, such a sophisticated nervous system would be an odd waste of energy. Nobody would create such a neural network just to enable us to break wind. There must be more to it than that. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

16 " As it happens, the higher the hygiene standards in a country, the higher that nation’s incidence of allergies and autoimmune diseases. The more sterile a household is, the more its members will suffer from allergies and autoimmune diseases. Thirty years ago, about one person in ten had an allergy; today, that figure is one in three. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

17 " Those people who post pictures of their dinner on Facebook, only to be disappointed by the lack of “likes” from friends, are simply trying to appeal to the wrong audience. If there were such a thing as Facebug (Facebook for microbes!), a picture of your dinner would provoke an excited response from millions of users—and shudders of disgust from millions more. The menu changes daily: useful milk digesters contained in a cheese sandwich, armies of Salmonella bacteria hiding in a delicious dish of tiramisu. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

18 " The gut has not only a remarkable system of nerves to gather all this information, but also a huge surface area. That makes it the body’s largest sensory organ. Eyes, ears, nose, or the skin pale by comparison. The information they gather is received by the conscious mind and used to formulate a response to our environment. They can be seen as life’s parking sensors. The gut, by contrast, is a huge matrix, sensing our inner life and working on the subconscious mind. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

19 " Saliva is basically filtered blood. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

20 " Doctors believe that straining too much or too often on the toilet can also seriously increase the risk of varicose veins, a stroke, or defecation syncope—fainting on the toilet. "

― Giulia Enders , Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ