Gut Garden

Microbes are tiny life forms you can only see with a microscope. They're on every part of your body, everything you touch and eat, in the air you breathe and the water you drink. There are trillions of  microbes inside your body - so many that they outnumber your human cells by twenty per cent!

But what do they do? And are they helpful, harmful, or both? Luckily, Katie Brosnan is on hand with a tremendously informative guide to these smallest of particles and organisms, which include bacteria, archaea (direct descendants of the first organisms on the planet), fungi, viruses, microscopic animals and protists.

Brosnan describes a microscopic universe which marvels with its ingenuity, variety and scale. Taking us through the different types of microbe, followed by how they work and live in the human body (mouth, throat, stomach, intestines and poo), she also explains what antibiotics do to valuable gut microbes, what prebiotics and probiotics are and even how fermented food can really help us tend our precious gut gardens. This is a wonderful and eye-opening guide to the smallest things in the world, and well worth a read.