Hummingbirds Live an Extreme Lifestyle Thriving on All-Sugar Diet That Would Put Us in a Coma

[Michie]

Everyone loves to watch hummingbirds—tiny, brightly colored blurs that dart about, hovering at flowers and pugnaciously defending their ownership of a feeder.

But to the scientists who study them, hummingbirds offer much more than an entertaining spectacle. Their small size and blazing metabolism mean they live life on a knife-edge, sometimes needing to shut down their bodies almost completely just to conserve enough energy to survive the night—or to migrate thousands of miles, at times across open ocean.


Their nectar-rich diet leads to blood sugar levels that would put a person in a coma. And their zipping, zooming flight sometimes generates g-forces high enough to make a fighter pilot black out. The more researchers look, the more surprises lurk within those tiny bodies, the smallest in the avian world.

Continued below.

Hummingbirds Live an Extreme Lifestyle Thriving on All-Sugar Diet That Would Put Us in a Coma

Their small size and blazing metabolism mean they live life on a knife-edge, sometimes needing to shut down their bodies almost completely.

www.goodnewsnetwork.org

 

[timewerx]

Everyone loves to watch hummingbirds—tiny, brightly colored blurs that dart about, hovering at flowers and pugnaciously defending their ownership of a feeder.

But to the scientists who study them, hummingbirds offer much more than an entertaining spectacle. Their small size and blazing metabolism mean they live life on a knife-edge, sometimes needing to shut down their bodies almost completely just to conserve enough energy to survive the night—or to migrate thousands of miles, at times across open ocean.


Their nectar-rich diet leads to blood sugar levels that would put a person in a coma. And their zipping, zooming flight sometimes generates g-forces high enough to make a fighter pilot black out. The more researchers look, the more surprises lurk within those tiny bodies, the smallest in the avian world.

Continued below.

Hummingbirds Live an Extreme Lifestyle Thriving on All-Sugar Diet That Would Put Us in a Coma

Their small size and blazing metabolism mean they live life on a knife-edge, sometimes needing to shut down their bodies almost completely.

www.goodnewsnetwork.org

Ironically, I'm on a very similar diet and lifestyle as a hummingbird. I have a high exercise workload of 11 to 16 hours per week of mostly moderate to high intensity cardio (skate, run, bike). My daily figure skating drills can generate g-forces up 6 Gs when landing on one foot.

Just a little over a year ago, I was cycling nonstop up to 6 hours in the mountains in 100 F temperatures every weekend without drinking nor eating anything.

My main hydration fluid is 1/5 sugar and is identical to "artificial nectar" 1/5 (summer) to 1/3 (colder seasons) sugar used to feed hummingbirds. My total daily fluid intake from all sources is only 2.5 glasses of nectar and 0.75 glass of water which is actually way below than most people consume each day.

I'm well adapted to this extreme diet from training and maybe genetics as well. Dad also hydrated similarly but on a considerably less extreme level as I do. No symptoms of Cardiovascular Disease nor Diabetes. Not on any meds and in my mid forties. I'm less healthy with water. I often get migraines and gastrointestinal problems with more water in hydration.