Chocolate Milk or Chocolate Soy Milk for Recovery

GatorDeb - 2010-12-28 1:00 AM What he said.  Soy milk lacks everything that makes regular chocolate milk so good and so good for you   It's just like egg beaters.... no calories but lacks everything that makes eggs good.  In general, lower-caloric "replacements" are just for taste (like that 100-calorie peanut butter).

danjstark - 2010-12-27 11:44 PM

My wife is lactose intolerant and a consistent runner who always has chocolate soy milk in the fridge.  It lasts longer than regular milk and she makes sure it's always there.  Is it an equal to low fat cows milk as a recovery drink?  Did a couple googles and then came here...

GatorDeb - 2010-12-28 4:00 AM

What he said.  Soy milk lacks everything that makes regular chocolate milk so good and so good for you  

GatorDeb - 2010-12-28 9:02 AM Protein, for one.  Soy milk has almost no protein.

Experior - 2010-12-28 9:41 AMI guess this chocolate milk 'recovery' thing is quickly becoming a pet peeve of mine.  I'll try not to sound testy. 

If you read the studies on this, you'll find that they have been blown WAY out of proportion by the media.  First, generally the comparison is between chocolate milk and a carbohydrate recovery drink, or between choc milk and a sports drink, or between choc milk and nothing. There are other options in the grocery store...  Second, typically choc milk 'performs' as well as, not better than, the comparison.  Third, 'perform' is often defined in ways that make the studies' relevance to us (as endurance athletes) very questionable.  (Two examples:  in one study it was defined in terms of performance in a cycle to exhaustion test 4 hours after the initial bout of exercise.  Unless you do races where you take a four hour break and then start up again, this effect is not necessarily relevant.  In another the test was more long-term, but effectiveness was defined in terms of the levels of creatine kinase in the muscles, where choc milk fared slightly better, but there were no truly performance-related differences at all--muscular strength, time to fatigue, etc., were the same.)

Bottom line:  Choc milk is better than nothing, and probably as good as 'engineered' carbohydrate recovery drinks.  And I'd bet dollars to donuts that choc soy milk is just as good.  It is not nutritionally 'empty' as one post suggested.  In fact, if you compare their nutritional profiles, they are remarkably similar, though the type of protein is indeed different.

Just eating a decent snack or meal is probably better than all of the above.  Try some nuts and a piece of fruit.

tophermcdougall - 2010-12-28 11:45 AM I have a question. Why chocolate milk and not regular milk? I'm being honest. I didn't even know about chocolate milk being used until it was offered after the Long Beach HM I did. I'm still not sure why they didn't offer white milk as well. 

bryancd - 2010-12-28 12:07 PM

X3

Great post Mike. I also fatigue from the never ending chocolat milk hype.

aggiecatcher - 2010-12-28 12:36 PM I use a protein drink, but often just go with chocolate milk because it tastes good, has the protein and sugars I need, is lowfat, and cheap. Mostly cheap since I don't like paying top dollar for supplements I already have available to me. One gallon of milk -- $3.49 One chocolate milk mix -- $3.00 16 servings for $6.50 -- 41 cents per serving. Cheap and effective...and tastes oh so good.

jsklarz - 2010-12-28 1:31 PM i always grind up a pound of liver into my soy chocolate milk, lots of protein.