Sports drinks beaten by cereals

After training, athletes look to restore their energy and they often do it with sports drinks. However, there is another option that will help them recover faster according to the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition and it’s found in most kitchens. The answer lies in a bowl of cereal with non-fat milk as that provides similar results as athletes look for from an electrolyte drink. Athletes may get the same post-workout boost from a bowl of cereal as they might expect from a sports drink, researchers found.A bowl of cereal with nonfat milk after exercise produced statistically similar results as a carbohydrate-electrolyte drink for nearly all measures of muscle glycogen and protein synthesis, Lynne Kammer, M.S.E., M.A., of the, and colleagues reported.

The researchers at the University of Texas at Austin findings, who carried out the study, focused on cyclists and triathletes and they were looking to see how when muscle is broken down and depleted of oxygen by exercise, what is the best way to restore it to normal levels. The researchers looked at how exercise depletes muscle stores of glycogen and turns it into glucose, which fuels the physical activity, and in doing so it breaks down muscle protein. This led to the researchers investigating the logical extension of this, which is that to replace the lost protein any post-exercise food or drink needs protein as well as carbohydrate to replace that which has been lost.

By having a bowl of cereal after exercise you get carbohydrate replacement and the milk that accompanies it provides essential, easily digestible protein and in a less expensive form than sports drinks.