Chocolate Milk: Slick Marketing or Good Post-Workout Snack?

Chocolate milk is getting a lot of press lately for being a good post-workout recovery drink.  The Milk Processor Education Program, the group responsible for the Got Milk? campaign, has a new campaign to promote chocolate milk to adults. You can see the ad on the USAToday news article about this topic here.

College students often ask me whether chocolate milk is "good" for them. The answer is not a clear-cut yes or no.  If you dislike plain, fat-free or lowfat milk and would never drink it and are of normal weight, then I'd recommend chocolate milk to you in order to get some great nutrition (vitamin D, calcium, protein.)  However, I would not recommend chocolate milk as a regular drink to everyone because it is a sugar-sweetened beverage with more calories than most people need to consume from a beverage.  I tend to agree with most of what Marion Nestle says about nutrition topics and I agree with her on the chocolate-milk-as-an-exercise-recovery-meal debate. Instead of drinking your calories, eat something! 

College-friendly After Exercise Meals:

• bowl of healthy cereal with milk (there! I used milk, not chocolate milk, in this example!)
• fruit smoothie (example: yogurt, berries, orange juice)
• sandwich (example: whole grain bread, turkey, lettuce, tomato)
• pasta with marinara or meat sauce
• burrito or burrito bowl with rice (like at Goody's)
• pizza bagel (easy-to-make even in your campus apartment)
• peanut butter and jelly sandwich with....MILK!

Have a great weekend! Exercise today - it's gorgeous outside!