How Fast Do Carbs Leave a T-Shirt Cannon?

READ ALL THE WAY to the end....you won't be disappointed.

Many times I've written about the importance and advantages of eating a combination of protein, fat and carbohydrates at meals and snacks (read my previous post here).  Eating a combination of nutrients makes you feel fuller longer and supplies the body with a more steady rate of energy.  Last week I came across some data presented in a way I hadn't seen it before.

Look at the stomach emptying time of the following macronutrients:

• SIMPLE SUGARS (carbohydrates) = empty from the stomach at the rate of about 10 calories/minute
• PROTEIN = empties at the rate of about 4 calories/minute
• FAT = empties at about 2 calories/minute

Okay.  The last several posts I've done have been pretty serious and heavy.  Life is about balance right?  I'm not Super Nerd all the time.  Here's what I did this weekend....

DEMOLITION DERBY!!!!

When I was a kid my dad would always enter the Waseca County Fair's Demolition Derby.  That meant we got to help him get his car ready and be in his "pit crew".  I haven't been to one of these raucous events in probably 24 years.  It was awesome.  On so many levels.  

1.  Beer was $2.  Two dollars?!  A girl like me could get loaded for less than $5.  (Though I only had one - there's that nerd again.)

2.  The T-Shirt Cannon.  In between "rounds" while the cars were being towed out of the arena/mud pit, they were shooting t-shirts out of an air cannon across the arena into the grandstand.  I leave for 10 minutes to get my $2 beer, and miss the best part of the whole event.  Tiffany was standing up on the bleacher seat because she was trying to get out of the way of someone trying to get through.  She's only paying attention to not falling off the bleacher.  She's trying to make her self as small as possible, which means legs wide, arms out, leaning back.  What she didn't realize was right at that moment the cannon was pointed directly at her and a rolled up t-shirt was traveling across the arena at a very high velocity.  The planets aligned, all sound stopped, and the t-shirt nailed her square in the "you-don't-want-to-be-hit-here-by-a-t-shirt-or-anything-else-for-that-matter".  It was traveling with such force that it bounced off her and the guy in front of her grabbed it like it was the last Tickle Me Elmo in 1996.  

Cityslicker!  Since I missed the whole thing, the guy who grabbed the t-shirt was kind enough to participate in a re-enactment:

We are SO going back next year.  You can buy a $5 raffle ticket that if chosen, allows you to drive in the demo derby.  They have a car all tricked out, you get to drive it AND keep any prize money you may win.  

We're starting our raffle fund now.....