From Slate.com, there’s a nice feature today about the “fierceness” of hummingbirds:
Hummingbirds are Fierce, Deadly Gods of War
I can relate to this. Pop (hey, I’m from the Midwest, it’s “pop”, not “soda” or anything else) is my downfall. I don’t drink coffee, and especially during the week, a can of pop somehow makes it into my office. Mostly it’s Coke. If I’m really having a bad, tiring day, a Mountain Dew has been known to slip into my office. But having an occasional can of Coke is nothing, if you read this story.
Given the metabolism of a hummingbird, they consume half their body weight in sugar every day. As the article notes, an equivalent would be a human being drinking 1,163 cans of Coke a day, or 1,106 cans of Pepsi (Pepsi has more sugar).
Therefore, I have determined my occasional can of Coke isn’t bad. It may actually be a health food, based on this comparison. Not only am I drinking the “right” pop in Coke (the less sugary one), but I’m only drinking 0.09% of my daily allowance of sugar, in hummingbird terms.
It’s all a matter of perspective…