Patriot Health Digest
You’ve just ran for miles on your treadmill or done reps using your squat rack. After all that work, your post-workout fuel can mean everything. You’re probably used to going for a sports drink, but what if I said milk was the better post-workout drink?
“Gatorade interrupts fat oxidation due to it containing a type of carbohydrate that stops the metabolic pathways that are responsible for the breakdown of fat in your muscles,” says Philip Chilibeck, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at Canada’s University of Saskatchewan. “But in comparison, the protein and calcium inside milk aid these metabolic pathways in using fat.”
In Chilibeck’s new research, he discovered that athletes who consumed skim milk after a hard workout burned more fat the next morning.
So if Gatorade interrupts fat breakdown, and the protein and calcium in milk helps it, then skim milk is the obvious choice post-workout.
Also, Gatorade’s sugar content increases glucose levels, which is bad for your blood pressure, while the protein in milk offsets this negative effect.
Sports drinks do have their place: If you are not a dairy lover, or you are lactose intolerant, Gatorade could help you replace those lost fluids and electrolytes as well as skim milk, but without the added weight loss benefits.
