Chocolate Milk Good for Athletes, Study Says
By EDDIE PELLS AP DENVER (Nov. 17) -
It comes in only one flavor - no Fierce Grape or Riptide Rush available - and you certainly won’t see your favorite basketball star gulping it down on the sideline during a timeout. But a group of scientists recently discovered that one of the most effective drinks to help athletes recover after exercise is the same thing moms across America have been giving their kids for years. A simple glass of chocolate milk.
The small group of fit athletes who took part in the study were asked to work out strenuously on a stationery bicycle, then drink low-fat chocolate milk, a fluid-replacement drink like Gatorade and a carbohydrate replacement drink like Endurox R4. A few hours later, they were asked to cycle again until they reached exhaustion.
The test was repeated three times - once with each kind of drink - and the data showed that the cyclists were able to go between 49 and 54 percent longer on the second stint after drinking chocolate milk than when they drank the carbohydrate drink. The difference between the milk and the fluid-replacement drink was not significant.
I read about this a while back. I use 1% chocolate milk as a recovery drink. The information that I read essentially summed it up as having the correct ratio of carbs, protein, and fat to make it an excellent recovery drink. The only thing it is missing is electrolytes. I told my brother (who is a runner) about this and he spoke with one of his friends who has a Phd and does research in exercise physiology. The word he got back from the expert was that everything that I had read seemed correct. Sure is a lot less money than Endurox too
Hey, I’m lactose intolerant, I rarely eat ice cream anymore.
I didn’t check your link, but i hve no doubt it brings up the pus issue discussed here a while back. Am I right? Do I win something if I guess correctly?
Why are you bringing all this back up? I was just pointing out an article which basically says natural foods will do the same thing as all of our fancy replacement and nutrition products. It’s Friday night for heavens’ sake. Lighten up everyone!
Thanks Martin- I went looking for your response. I am ALWAYS amazed how people think that certain foods are actually a real necessity based on propaganda…milk, cheese, bread etc… RIIiiiight.
Milk is a delivery system for corn syrup and wheat…wonderful combination based on millions of years of evolution- we won’t live on with out it!!!
Just have some chocolate soy milk if the pus paranoia gets the best of you. I’m assuming if you afraid of a little pus that you better be a vegan as well!
Somatic cells ARE NOT pus cells. They are every single cell in your body minus germ cells; i.e. bone, muscle, tissue blood and in your giant leap, white blood cells (WBC). WBC along with epithelial cells (there’s many but specifically the ones producing milk) are the primary forms of somatic cells found in cow’s milk. An increase in WBC is directly correlated to the level of infection and/or inflammation in the cow. WBC respond to infection and as they die off, collect with other waste product (epithelial cells in this case) to form pus. Pus contains somatic cells but somatic cells are not pus. If they were, you’d be eating pus every time you ate any other animal product.
Chocolate milk was my recovery drink of choice until I switched from cow’s milk to soymilk. Similar nutritional makeup, none of the ethical baggage or scientific obfuscation. Not quite as tasty I’ll admit, but you come to like it just the same.
