One little milk study and everyone’s having a cow.
For decades, biochemists and physiologists in the dog-eat-dog world of sports drink technology have struggled to find the perfect elixir — the right balance of carbohydrates, electrolytes, protein and fluid to keep athletes in peak form after various types of exercise.
So it was big news when exercise kinesiology professor Joel Stager and co-workers at Indiana University in Bloomington declared they had stumbled upon the perfect drink for elite cyclists recovering their energy after strenuous exercise.
That beverage was chocolate milk.
Read more from the report in the Los Angeles Times.
“It’s always the right time for chocolate milk.”
Quote by accomplished cyclist and long-distance hiker Kevin Hester (A.K.A. Welch’s) after walking 20 miles from the Mexican border to Lake Morena California on May 5, 2002, a very warm day.
As a longtime fan of drinking chocolate milk after a long hard day on a hot dusty trail I feel somewhat vindicated. I can’t wait for the day when researchers publicize the nutritional value of Fig Newtons.
I remember one late afternoon on a hot summer day I was climbing a nasty hill with a full pack and I had covered about 17 miles of a very strenuous 18 mile hike, and I ran out of gas. I mean I was spent. I literally could not walk one more step and I sat right down in a rather uncomfortable spot to rest. I ate maybe three Starburst candies and within a few minutes I was charging up the remainder of the hill. I arrived at camp feeling remarkably energetic.
That small amount of sugar was just the thing to reignite my furnace. I would never suggest that one should attempt to subsist on chocolate milk, Fig Newtons and Starburst candies, but when one is truly bonking, just flat out of gas, even something as seemingly insignificant as a LifeSaver can be a lifesaver.