I don't know about you but for me, I'll choose chocolate milk every single time. Plus you know what, my choice happens to be backed by scientific research.
Allow me tell you more. I've often been asked by friends, patients and even my competitors what I eat/ drink for my recovery after a hard training session or race. I'll tel them usually I'll eat/ drink whatever I fancy or whatever I find in the fridge at home. Most of the time it's an ice cold Coke and/or chocolates, chocolate milk, chips etc. I always get an incredulous look from my friends especially." Are you allowed to do that?" Well, the study below actually says I may be right. Well, ( I don't know about Coca Cola or chips), but with regards to chocolate milk anyway.
Published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, Karp et al, 2006 found that chocolate milk was an effective recovery aid, similar to Gatorade and superior to the more expensive Endurox. For athletes training twice per day, chocolate milk is an effective recovery aid. Plus they taste a lot better to me than Gatorade or Endurox anytime.
Reference
Karp JR, Johnston JD et al. (2006). Chocolate Milk As A Post-exercise Recovery Aid. Int J Sport Nutr Ex Metab. Feb; 16(1): 78-91.
 |
| We drink Oat milk now, not cow milk |
Hi Gino,
ReplyDeleteI tried to post a comment on your blog, but for some reason, URL's aren't working? Anyway, I liked your article on milk vs. energy drinks.
I wanted to bring up the discussion: While there is no denying that chocolate milk can aid recovery, many studies suggest that sports/recovery drinks still work better. Food for thought? Here's an article I thought you might find interesting:
http://poweringmuscles.com/sports_science.php?id=37
Best regards,
Jennifer
--
Jennifer E. Mitchell
Blog: http://socialmediapr.wordpress.com
thanks for your article and comments. In the study you mentioned the researchers studied exercise(cycling) time to exhaustion and found that the subjects lasted an average of 110 minutes when they consumed the sports drink, 103 minutes when they consumed the milk and glucose-enhanced milk, and 93 minutes when they consumed water. These differences did not reach statistical significance though (perhaps the subjects studied were too few).
ReplyDeleteThe study which I posted by Karp et al (2006)studied recovery effects of twice a day training with the subjects taking chocolate milk, Gatorade or Endurox. The researchers had 9 trained young male cyclists perform a glycogen-depleting interval workout, followed by a 4 hour recovery period and then another workout at 70% of VO2max until exhaustion. During the recovery period, the participants consumed ~500mL of recovery drink immediately after exercise and another 500mL 2 hours after exercise. In the 2nd training session on the same day, surprisingly, chocolate milk and Gatorade were equally effective recovery drinks. The subjects were able to pedal for ~40 minutes at 70% of VO2max after consuming the chocolate milk or Gatorade compared to 27 minutes after drinking Endurox.
The data did support the conclusion that under the conditions studied, chocolate milk was an effective recovery aid, similar to Gatorade and superior to the more expensive Endurox.
I mentioned that I drank chocolate milk after my training sessions. I think if I were to drink it during training, I'll probably have an upset tummy.
Excellent comment, I totally agree that while training sports drinks are definitely better.
Thanks for the comments. Please keep them coming.
Hi Liz,
ReplyDeleteI deleted your post by mistake (hit the delete instead of publish button), can you please send again. Thank You.
gino
I read this post your post so nice and very informative post thanks for sharing this post
ReplyDeletebest recovery drink for cyclists
best hydration drink for runners
good energy drinks for working out
best electrolyte drink for runners