Gut by Giulia Enders | Key Takeaways, Analysis & Review

imagine having a four- to five-pound pet around 24 hours a day that must be fed. It eats whatever a person might eat, changes based on what it is fed, and is completely unique to its owner, although they may fall into certain categories. In exchange for caring for this pet, the owner receives improved digestion, disease resistance, and a more situationally aware brain

Some of the models for antidepressant function indicate that a better treatment for depression could exist in the gut, not in the brain

levels. A diet of deprivation can have the opposite result, making a dieter irritable or depressed.

Shifting from an unhealthy diet to a healthy one can result in a substantial improvement in mood and energy levels

The gut rivals the brain in complexity, nerve density, diversity, and control of behavior and emotions. The digestive and neurological systems are tightly interconnected.

Giulia Enders: Giulia Enders is a PhD student in gastroenterology at Germany's Goethe University in Frankfurt. She wrote Gut after winning a Science Slam competition in 2012 with a talk entitled, translated into English, “Guts with Charm.”