My long-suffering husband knew as soon as he heard it

Watching public TV, just now a show on birds gave the most astonishing fact: that hummingbirds eat around 10,000 calories a day. TEN THOUSAND. Each. A day.

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

If humans had an equivalent metabolism, we'd need over 100,000 calories.

Next time our kids balk at dinner and repeat a conviction that they "can't" eat so much, or that they shouldn't need what they need, that dessert will make them fat, or ascribes some moral value to how many calories one needs...

Bring up the hummingbird.

Hearing this tidbit I turned to look at my husband who laughed: "I KNEW you would blog on that as soon as I saw it."

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  2. I'm not sure this is quite true - I'm afraid the TV program was being misleading by talking in calories instead of kilocalories (the nutritional ones). I looked at a couple of sources and they mostly pretty much agreed that hummingbirds actually need in the neighborhood of 10 calories per day. http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-hummingbird.html
    Which is still an enormous amount given their size, of course.

    I do very much like your blog, Laura, and I often read the Around the Dinner Table forum. I've never posted there because I am a sufferer, not a parent, but I wanted to tell you that it has been helpful to me and I really admire the work you're doing.

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  3. Thank you, anonymous, on both counts!

    You must be right on the birds - astonishing enough that they eat their own weight daily!

    And I'm glad you like the blog - that means a lot to me. I appreciate it!

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