Chocolate milk: food of the gods!

[Scilly Suffolk]

As a cyclist on a budget, I was interested by a number of reports in the media on the benefits of drinking low-fat chocolate milk after exercise.

After a bit of Googling, I've found the research to back this up: two studies at the University of Texas at Austin have demonstrated improved endurance (time to exhaustion) and improved body composition (more muscle, less fat).

A further study by boffins from Central Washington University and University of Alabama demonstrated no difference between choccy milk and commercial recovery drinks!

All the studies used cycling as the reference exercise and were conducted on trained and untrained athletes.

I've got hold of the two Texan studies which I've attached below; the Washington/Alabama study was published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism but you have to pay to download it.

Enjoy!

 

[Bluebell72]

Any particular brand?

 

[yello]

There's several on this forum that have been fans of chocolate milk for some time. FabFoodie being one such as I recall.

I used to be but stopped maybe a year ago mainly because it contains too much carb for my purposes. These days I prefer rollmops!

 

[brockers]

I've always wondered what's so special about the chocolate bit. Why not banana milk or strawberry milk, or just, you know, milk ? Is the chocolate bit for people who can't drink milk without it being flavoured, or does the chocolate flavouring itself have magical, restorative properties?

 

[Becs]

Any milk will do the job muscle repair-wise. Does the same job as whey protein but much cheaper. Tis all about the leucine content.

 

[Dayvo]

I've loved chocolate milk all my life and it's just a wonderful coincidence that it is a good after-ride recovery drink.

 

[Sittingduck]

Mmmmm, have another Nesquik and blame it on the bunny!

 

[benb]

I've always wondered what's so special about the chocolate bit. Why not banana milk or strawberry milk, or just, you know, milk ? Is the chocolate bit for people who can't drink milk without it being flavoured, or does the chocolate flavouring itself have magical, restorative properties?

Because it's mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm chocolate, that's why.

 

[fossyant]

Milk and any milkshake stuff

 

[Fab Foodie]

There's several on this forum that have been fans of chocolate milk for some time. FabFoodie being one such as I recall.

Correct!
Milk's good and milkshake even better. I don't know if Chocolate milk is significantly better than say Strawberry or Banana, but it's possible that the Cocoa solids add something more than fruit flavours and sugar alone.
For us mortals, a simple milkshake is a very good recovery product with near maximal uptake/assymilation rates.
There are reasons why baby animals grow fast on milk ....

 

[ColinJ]

I think Cycling Plus did an article on this a couple of years ago and they said that there was something in the chocolate that made a positive difference.

 

[Alun]

+1 for chocolate milk. Choose Guinness for a low fat alternative.

 

[eyko]

Always drunk milk after exercise as it always made me feel a bit better. Always assumed it was just a mental thing, now I know it actually does me some good

Remember once ordering a pint of milk in a pub in Scotland, after a particularly long day of walking/running/scrambling. Got me a funny look, and some confusion over what to charge me. I'd like to state I also ordered a pint of stout