Healthy cereal tops sports drink after workout

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - After a lengthy bout of physical exercise, eating a bowl of healthy cereal with skim milk may help muscles recover at least as well as, if not better, than downing a specialized sports drink, according to research reported at the American College of Sports Medicine meeting in New Orleans.

Exercise damages muscle tissue, and milk and a 100-percent whole-wheat cereal, which contain protein and carbohydrate, help rebuild damaged tissue, Lynne Kammer who led the study told Reuters Health.

"Sports drinks may have an advantage in convenience," she said. "But for the large population of people that exercise close to home, eating a bowl of cereal with milk is just as good as anything that is more exotic and expensive."

Kammer, a graduate student working under Dr. John Ivy at University of Texas at Austin, had 12 athletes (8 men and 4 women) fast for 12 hours, then cycle for 2 hours at least 5 days apart on a stationary bicycle. The subject did not ride to exhaustion. Immediately after each ride, the athletes consumed either a 100-percent whole-wheat flake cereal with nonfat milk or a typical carbohydrate-packed sports drink.

The drink and the small meal both produced a healthy rise in blood sugar and insulin levels; however, during recovery, cereal raised insulin significantly more and blunted the rise in blood lactate compared with the sports drink.

"What we showed was that cereal and milk was good for protein synthesis, or muscle rebuilding, after exercise. Because of the protein in the milk you would expect to see this," Kammer said.

"But what was most surprising," she said, "was that the lactate in the blood was greatly reduced after consuming the cereal and milk as compared to the sports drink -- and that's a good thing."

The cereal and milk, and the sports, drink helped the body replenish depleted glycogen -- a fuel the body uses during exercise -- but the cereal and milk displayed greater glycogen storage potential. Tests showed the tired muscles were ready to store additional glycogen after the cereal-and-milk regimen, even after glycogen had already been synthesized, Kammer explained.

So when exercising close to home, Kammer says -- skip the sports drink and grab a bowl of whole-grain cereal.