Protein powders and Chocolate milk are the best post-workout recovery beverages that you may have never considered. Read more to find out how you can make your post-workout much more chocolatey and yummy!
Chocolate lovers everywhere should rejoice! Chocolate milk, everyone’s favorite childhood drink and beverage of choice, might just be the most powerful drink you can take to help yourself recover after every intense workout. The sad thing is that many people might be overlooking the benefits one can get from this rich drink according to a new systematic review. The body of research was compiled from various studies made by researchers of controlled trials regarding chocolate milk and its impact on workout recovery.
Chocolate milk’s effects were studied and looked into by researchers establishing its effects on performance and recovery markers, to exhaustion, heart rate, serum creatine kinase, and serum lactate. They found that chocolate milk provides similar or even superior results if compared to other popular sports and fitness drinks or placebos. Another thing they have observed is that the time to exhaustion was significantly increased after chocolate milk was consumed.
All this is possible thanks to chocolate milk’s macros. Chocolate milk has a 4:1 carbohydrates to protein ratio. This makes chocolate milk the perfect drink for your recovery. Chocolate milk also has minerals (i.e. electrolytes) that makes it an incredible drink for hydration.
A study that was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism found that the athletes who drank chocolate milk were able to retain more than twice the amount of fluid in chocolate milk compared to consuming sports drinks after their workout.
So, what does this all mean? It means that it is now time to tap into your inner childhood memories, ditch the artificial or saccharine sports drinks available in the market and start drinking chocolate milk again.
Below are three basic smoothie recipes to get you started.
Creamy Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake
Ingredients
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
(choose the “no sugar added” variety for your workout smoothie but if none available, any peanut butter will do)
2 tablespoons honey (optional)
2 large ripe bananas, cut into chunks
1 ½ cups almond milk
1 ½ tablespoons of cocoa powder
Procedure
Put all ingredients in the list in your blender and pulse or blend until completely smooth.
Pour them into your favorite glasses and serve or drink as soon as possible.
** IF you are allergic to peanut butter substitute with almond butter.
Choco-Banana Protein Smoothie
Ingredients
¼ cup protein powder (chocolate flavor)
1 ripe banana
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 scoops crushed ice
Procedure
Place all ingredients in a high-speed blender and puree or blend until smooth and creamy. Pour in your favorite serving glass and drink.
Paleo Choco-Coco Smoothie
Ingredients
1 cup coconut milk
1 frozen banana, sliced
¼ cup raw cacao powder
1 scoop collagen protein powder
1 cup ice
Procedure
Add all the ingredients in your blender. Blend in high power until smooth.
Pour into your favorite serving glass and drink.
