Sugar an Aid to Muscular Energy.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2079, 17 February 1898, Page 2

Sugar an Aid to Muscular Energy.

It is a fiaot well-known to Alpine tourists that on difficult climbing excursions an increased desire is felt for the consumption of sweets and sweetened foods, and many who never touch 1 such things at home, devour large quantities of them on these tours. It is also frequently remarked how eagerly the guides appropriate any sugar that may be left over- and consume it en route. At the instigation of the Prussian War Office, investigations have recently been made by means of a special apparatus into, (he question whether the consumption, if small quantities of sugar rendered the tired muscles capable of renewed exertion. In order to\obtain a practical result, the person who was made the subject of the experiment was kept totally ignorant of the object of the experimenters. Qn one day a swedt liquid was administered containing 30- grammes of sugar, and on the next day a similar liquid containing a sufficient amount of saccharin to render it indistinguishable from the other as regarded taste. When a very large amount of muscular \york had been performed before the employment of the apparatus for further labour, it was. found that on the days when sugar was administered a distinctly greater quantity of work could be g *t through than on the days when saccharin was given The blood had become very poor in sugar in consequence of the severe muscular effort which had previously been gone through, and hence the administration of a comparatively small-quantity of sugar hail the effect of producing an increased capability for work. , . -