Before you try another protocol, it is worth understanding what your digestive system is actually doing.Most gut health advice starts by selling you something. A supplement. An elimination diet. A test with a long list of findings and a short list of proof. Very little of it starts by explaining how digestion works, which is a strange order to do things in.This book starts there. What happens after you swallow. What your stomach really does, and why most absorption happens a good deal further down. What your pancreas, liver and gallbladder contribute. What goes on inside your colon, and where the microbiome genuinely fits.Anjali Rao is a health writer rather than a clinician, and she is clear about the difference. The first chapter is about what deserves a doctor rather than another search engine, and the warning signs run through the whole book instead of hiding in a disclaimer.Understanding comes first because it is what lets you judge everything that comes after it. Once you know what your gut is doing, most of what is sold to you becomes much easier to assess.Book One of The Gut Health Series. Plain-English physiology, an honest account of what the evidence supports, and no protocol to buy.