In Fresno County, thousands of children returned to school today, including my own. In their brown bag lunches, they each carried a bottle of water. I'm taking the advice of UC Berkeley nutrition professor Patricia Crawford, who recently published a Q&A about sports drinks (pdf), one of the few caloric beverages that will still be for sale to kids during school hours. Crawford says children should almost always choose water to quench their thirst. HealthNewsDigest.com published a story we put out about the Q&A, but this isn't the only advice about sports drinks you'll find online.
An article this month in SportingNews.com said the Washington Huskies football team are being offered chocolate milk following workouts (along with Gatorade and water.)
According to the article, the decision to offer chocolate milk came after a study last fall from scientists at Indiana University that was published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism and was supported in part by the Dairy and Nutrition Council.
"The small study found no significant difference between using a fluid-replacement drink or chocolate milk for athletes following exercise, with dairy folks touting the nutritional benefits of drinking milk -- chocolate or otherwise," the article says.
An op-ed piece by Susan Bowerman, a registered dietitian and assistant director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, published today in the LA Times supports the milk idea saying it is "another tried-and-true recovery drink for many athletes." She continues: "it's protein- and carb-rich, with fluid, potassium and cocoa antioxidants to boot."
Bowerman also cited a small placebo-controlled study published in May in the journal Nutrition that demonstrated that an extract produced from unripe apples helped to counteract fatigue in athletes after a series of bouts on an exercise bike.
"Apples, like all fruits, are a good source of carbohydrates. But the researchers concluded that procyanidin, an antioxidant in apples, was responsible," the article says.
