Eat blueberries with fries and other life hacks from best-selling author Dr Giulia Enders

SINGAPORE – Having trouble loving your body? Why not see a couple’s therapist? German doctor and best-selling author Giulia Enders did that to build a better relationship with her organs and write about them in her second book.

Organ Speak: What It Really Means To Listen To Our Bodies was released on April 28 by publisher HarperOne. The book explores the functions of the lungs, skin, muscles, immune system and brain in the enthusiastic and informative style that characterised the author’s debut.

Twelve years ago, Enders shot to fame at age 24 with a book about all things digestive – from burps to bowel disease.

Gut: The Inside Story Of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ (published in German in 2014, and in English in 2015) was widely praised for its breezy style that made cutting-edge research accessible to lay readers.

It has sold four million copies worldwide and led to Enders being featured in a 2024 Netflix documentary, Hack Your Health: The Secrets Of Your Gut.

Gut was a fun and light-hearted book. The entire experience was like a very funny excursion, Enders says in a video call from Frankfurt, Germany, where she lives.

With Organ Speak, the author has become more serious about science communication and helping people get the information they need to live healthier and happier lives.

Now aged 36, she has a doctorate of medicine and clinical experience. She still loves the gut the most, but knows that simply treating digestive woes does not always address the root cause of these health problems.

She writes about a woman suffering stomach cramps from a miscarriage, and a shift worker whose digestion is constantly upset because his work hours are irregular.

She finds it concerning that her patients see themselves as machines that need fixing. They tend to be embarrassed by feelings such as loneliness or anxiety.

“Living beings are not linear or completely calculable,” Enders says. “We lose sight of what we are when we keep comparing ourselves to machines.”

“I want people to grasp the value and generosity of their bodies,” she adds. The body is constantly working to protect itself and sharing valuable information that we might not understand.

As an example, she reframes the traditional explanation of autoimmune conditions being a result of the immune system attacking the body. Instead, she says, think of it as the immune system trying so hard to keep the body safe that it goes too far.

This reframing helps explain why treatment approaches, such as managing diet and stress, can help people with autoimmune conditions. Instead of thinking, “Oh, I beat back on you, stupid immune system”, the approach aims to calm down the immune system.

Beyond gut instinct

Organ Speak arose from a desire to offer people a new, more organic perspective on their health and biology. The five organs she focuses on are based on human needs and aspects of being human: breathing (the lungs), security (the immune system), relationships (the skin), strength and effect (the muscles) and thinking and being (the brain).

Each chapter takes readers from a school-level understanding of how the organ functions to new research about how it contributes to health and well-being.

However, a problem arose during the research and writing process. Enders was still so enamoured of the gut that it was difficult to write about other organs.

Hence, she sought advice from a couple’s therapist.

“I said, ‘I have a hard time having a good relationship with these other organs. What can I do to be closer to them?’ Because with the gut, it was always very natural.

“And then, she said, ‘Do they remind you of people that you are already close with?’”

Thus was born the structure of the book. Each chapter is prefaced with a tale about someone Enders loves.

She processed her grandmother’s death by thinking about how the skin heals wounds.

Her relationship with her elder sister Jill Enders, who illustrated this book and Gut, is used to reframe how one thinks of the brain. Just as the sisters bring out the best in each other, the brain is not the boss of the body, but “an organ of connection” that brings out the best of the body and vice versa.

“No one understands me the way my sister does. There’s not much communication necessary,” the younger Enders says.

For Organ Speak, Jill Enders, a designer who specialises in science communication, used a layering watercolour technique for the illustrations, inspired by the way body cells lie over one another.

Giulia Enders says: “Given a little bit of text, she will do exactly what is perfect. I would not want to work with anyone else.”

Hacks for better living

Organ Speak is peppered with bio-hacks, such as why you should eat blueberries alongside fries (for the antioxidants), and why exhaling longer than you inhale can help reduce stress.

Here are four health hacks from Enders.

1. Exhale longer than you inhale

Inhaling makes the heart pump faster, but exhaling helps it calm down, she says. “One minute of exhaling longer than inhaling reduces stress hormones in the blood and, over weeks and months, it reduces the likelihood of stress-associated diseases.”

She uses this breathing technique to help her relax while travelling. She suggests trying this breathing technique for a minute during your lunch break and later in the afternoon.

2. Add antioxidants to your diet

Enders says that energy-rich meals – often heavy in carbohydrates – and fried foods can release oxygen radicals that damage cells. Unusual physical strain, mental stress and inflammation do the same.

She suggests compensating with foods high in antioxidants, such as a handful of blueberries (25g) for 320 calories worth of fries. A third of an apple or 1½ bananas would also work.

She carries freeze-dried blueberries around to help her recover from the stress of travel or a polluted day.

“When the air has a lot of free radicals outside, I just pop a handful,” she says.

3. Move out of joy for brain benefits

Exercise stimulates genes in the brain and regular exercise can spark the formation of new brain cells and protect against depression, dementia or Parkinson’s disease.

In her research, Enders found that even if physical activity does not lead to much muscle growth, it can still have a beneficial effect on the brain.

For those who may not have much time for a workout, there are easier alternatives, she says. “Just listening to music and cleaning your apartment while moving to the music can be good. It turns on many genes in your brain, and even if your muscles don’t grow right away, your brains will change a lot.”

4. Rest, then work

Researching how muscles work led Enders to titin, a protein in the muscles which can charge with energy during seemingly relaxed movements such as yoga poses. The German national football team have been using yoga to strengthen their muscles before training and matches.

Enders was inspired by this to change the way she works. Previously, if she did not manage to complete a task, she would continue grinding. This was often unproductive, especially when the task required deep thinking or creative work.

Now, she gets up from her desk to move around, speak with a friend or shower. “Earlier, I wouldn’t give myself permission to do that because I thought it was lazy,” she says.

“Then, I read about the muscle and how it needs regeneration to do what it does. I suddenly started allowing myself to work differently, and I was way more productive.”