You may have heard about a study recently published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolsim that brought that old childhood favorite drink of chocolate milk into the headlines. This attention getting study did bring up a lot of practical questions regarding your best food and fluid recovery nutrition choices, and a good opportunity to clarify the proper use of various sports nutrition supplements.

Let’s take a quick look at the study. Researchers provided subjects with either chocolate milk, a sports drink, or a commercially available recovery drink (there was no disguised placebo test), immediately after, and then again two hours after a cycling bout to exhaustion. A second cycling bout followed the first by four hours. Performance during the second cycling bout was measured to determine which drink was best for recovery. The results were interesting, and a bit surprising. What was not surprising, was that the chocolate milk appeared to be a good recovery food (yes, real food works, but more on that farther down this column). What was surprising was that the sports drink, a product designed for consumption during exercise, did just as well as the chocolate milk in promoting nutritional recovery. In another interesting twist, the designer recovery drink did not seem to aid in recovery as well as the chocolate milk.

So is it time to toss away your favorite recovery drink? After all, it is convenient and tasty, and provides a nice mix of fluid, carbohydrate, sodium, and even some protein that can all jumpstart your muscles in making back the glycogen fuel burned off during training. Well don’t put it away just yet (especially if you really like it and it fits into your budget), and please don’t used your favorite sports drink as a recovery drink (that’s not what it made for). But if you are interested in using some real food and fluid ideas for your recovery nutrition, welcome back….

Let’s lay down some ground rules. Now that you have returned to the fold of real food for the hours after exercise, what exactly are you looking for? In the thirty minutes after hard training aim for half a gram of carbohydrate (or slightly more) for every pound that you weigh. If you weigh 150 lb., have 75 grams, if you weigh 180 lb. have 90 g of carbohydrate, if you weigh 125 lb. have 65 g.

If you consume this full carbohydrate amount, adding some protein is not necessary. But many real foods are a mix of both protein and carbohydrate, and maybe the mix of foods that you like and tolerate after exercise contain some protein. If you decide to add the protein in, take the carbohydrate down a notch, about 60 g for the 150 lb. athlete, and add in 15 to 20 g of good quality protein. Keep in mind that fluid and sodium are also part of your recovery mix. For every pound of weight loss after exercise, you can aim for 20 ounces of fluid. The sodium that is also in many foods and fluids also aid in the rehydration process, conveniently carrying the fluids through your small intestine and into your bloodstream.

So what real foods and fluid can you consume in the 30 minutes after hard training.

Well for many athletes this simply is breakfast time. Chances are good that you train in the early morning hours and finish training craving a good bowl of cereal.Cereal, 1.5 ouncesMilk, skim, 8 ouncesBanana, 1 largeJuice, 8 ouncesTotal: 100 g carbohydrate, 8 grams of protein

Need to make a real food mix ahead of time so that you can eat on your way to work?Granola, ¾ cupYogurt, 8 ouncesRaisins, 2 Tbsp. Total: 100 g carbohydrate, 8 g protein

Here are a few other recovery nutrition ideas:

SmoothieMilk, 12 ouncesYogurt, 8 ouncesBerries, 1 cup60 g carbohydrate, 20 g protein

Bagel, 4 ouncesPeanut butter, 2 Tbsp. Jam, 2 tbsp. Apple, 1 medium105 g carbohydrate, 10 g protein Pita bread, 1 roundHummus, 2 tbsp. Banana, 1 largeJuice, 8 ounces90 g carbohydrate, 10 g protein Fig bars, 4 String cheese, 2 ouncesPear, 1 75 g carbohydrate, 14 g protein

Turkey, 3 ouncesCheese, 1 ounceBread, 2 slicesPretzels, 1.5 ouncesGrapes, 1 cup75 g carbohydrate, 35 g protein

Of course, you can also have some chocolate milk. Sixteen ounces provides about 50 g carbohydrate and 16 grams of protein. Chocolate milk (and some of the other real food suggestions) require refrigeration, so plan ahead for your particular training location and schedule.

Your immediate recovery nutrition can be followed by similar carbohydrate and protein amounts again in two hours, in the form of a meal or snack. This continues the replenishment process which occurs at an accelerated rate for four to six hours after training. Making the most of this recovery window is important if your next workout takes place in 4 to 12 hours.