Milk: the new sports drink? A Review

Nutritional intake is important for optimizing sport and exercise performance. Furthermore good nutrition is important in optimizing adaptations to training. For example, the ancient Greeks believed that high protein intakes were important for athletes, and these athletes would consume diets that contained excessive amounts of meat. Such ideas are still pervasive today, especially with resistance based sports such as body building. It is common for resistance athletes to consume diets that are more than double the recommended levels of dietary protein. In addition, athletes who participate in body building and similar sports are bombarded with marketing for various supplements, many of which are very high in protein. Research has clearly demonstrated that such excessively high protein intakes aren't necessary to facilitate the adaptations that occur with resistance training. Research has also established that the timing of nutritional intake is also very important in optimizing the adaptations to this form of exercise, as well as recovery from both resistance and endurance exercise. Finally, the nutrient composition of post-exercise nutritional intake has also been shown to be important in the recovery from endurance exercise and adaptations/recovery from resistance exercise.Bovine based milk and milk products represent a very good source of proteins, lipids, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. The health benefits of milk have been well established and have been extensively reviewed elsewhere [1]. Low-fat milk has a number of characteristics that theoretically make it a potentially good recovery beverage (Table 1). Firstly, it contains carbohydrates (lactose) in amounts similar to many commercially available sports drinks (glucose, maltodextrin). Milk contains casein and whey proteins in a ratio of 3:1 which provides for slower digestion and absorption of these proteins resulting in sustained elevations of blood amino acid concentrations [2]. Another advantage is th