Chocolate Milk After Exercise?

It sounds good to me! I HATE those sports drinks and always need something more than water after a workout. My body always seems to want something in the dairy family. Could this be the answer for me?

Fitness News
From the: Journal Sentinel
Posted: Sept. 17, 2006
Chocolate milk may speed your recovery

For a lot of people who do endurance activities, the longer they are out exercising, the more they think about the food and drink they want to consume when they get done.

How about chocolate milk?

A new study suggests that chocolate milk is an effective post-exercise recovery drink and an inexpensive alternative to traditional fluid replacement and carbohydrate replacement drinks.

The study involved nine endurance cyclists who exercised to exhaustion and drank either low-fat chocolate milk; Gatorade (a fluid replacement drink) or Endurox (a carbohydrate replacement drink).

The cyclists who drank chocolate milk during a rest period were able to bike nearly twice as long than those who drank the Endurox and as long as those who drank the Gatorade. The researchers speculated that chocolate milk had a beneficial combination of carbohydrate and protein.

"Our study indicates that chocolate milk is a strong alternative to some commercial recovery aids in helping athletes recover from strenuous, energy-depleting exercise," co-author, Joel Stager, a professor of kinesiology at Indiana University, said in a statement. "Chocolate contains an optimal carbohydrate to protein ratio."

A 154-pound male would need to drink 17 to 27 ounces of chocolate milk to meet recommendations for post-exercise carbohydrate. A 132-pound female would need to drink 14.5 to 23 ounces.

The study, which appeared in the International of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, was funded, in part, by the Dairy and Nutrition Council.