Gut understanding-From salivating to pooping and all that is in between

Eighty percent of all your cells in your body are bacteria and not human cells. Or is it that human beings are this mixture of beneficial bacteria and human cells? The majority of the bacteria live in our large intestines and contribute to our health and well-being. One of the hottest area in medicine and biology is the study of the human microbiome–understanding the role of the bacteria that co-habitate with us. The dynamic mixture of healthy and harmful bacteria can create illness or health and change our moods.

Ever wondered how food is digested, what foods do for you, what is a stomach ache, diarrhea or how defecation occurs? To understand our digestive tract from the mouth to the anus, from the first morsel of food entering our mouth to pooping is explained in superb readable book, Gut-The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Oran, written by the German writer and scientist. Giulia Enders. It is a must read for anyone concerned about impact of cesarean birth, food allergies, eczema, ulcers, effect of antibiotics, constipation, farting, bloating, etc.For a fun summary, see Steve Palkin’s interview with Giulia Enders on YouTube.

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Understanding marketing to doctors, food waste and sugar consumption through humor

The Last Week Tonight Show with John Oliver is a superb presentation of the problems and solutions about our health and food systems. Using humor, John William Oliver hosts the weekly HBO program on Sundays at 11pm and provides superb documentation of the corruption and marketing strategies that often negatively affect our health, diet and budget.
For evidence based–yet humorous–reporting watch the following episodes;
Marketing to Doctors (HBO). Pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars marketing drugs to doctors (published on Feb 8, 2015).

Food Waste (HBO). Producers, sellers, and consumers waste tons of food. John Oliver discusses the shocking amount of food we don’t eat (published on Jul 19, 2015).

Sugar (HBO). Sugar. It’s in everything!
Is it good for us? Well, the sugar industry thinks so (published on Oct 26, 2014).

For additional information, see the following blogs:

What the food companies forgot to tell you: For the sake of profits we promote metabolic syndrome, obesity and diabetes

Be aware of evolutionary/environmental traps

Over diagnosed: Should I have more tests?