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HEALTH
Muscles recover quickly with milk
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON - At the end of nearly every training session, Matt Whitmore downs a pint of milk straight from the bottle.
"I do it pretty religiously," said Whitmore, 25, a gym trainer in London. He first started drinking milk after exercise about 10 years ago when he couldn't afford expensive supplements or protein shakes. "Milk helps me recover faster and I feel great afterwards," he said. "And now, I hate to train without it."
Researchers are giving scientific support to a view that Whitmore vouches for from experience: that milk may be just as good or even better than sports drinks for serious athletes recovering from exercise. The health benefits of milk — which are carbohydrates, electrolytes, calcium and vitamin D
hydroxy, calcium and vitamin D — have long been established. But for athletes, milk also contains the two proteins best for rebuilding muscles; casein and whey.
Muscles get damaged after an intense bout of aerobic exercise like running, playing football, or cycling. The casein and whey proteins in milk are precisely what
the body needs to regenerate muscles fast.
Glenys Jones, a nutritionist at Britain's Medical Research Council, said milk's protein content makes it an ideal post-exercise drink.
wilk provides the building blocks for what you need to build new muscles," Jones said, who has no ties to the dairy industry.
"Milk provides the building blocks for what you need to build new muscles."
She said sports drinks mainly replace lost carbohydrates and electrolytes, and don't usually have the necessary nutrients for muscles to regenerate themselves.
Experts have generally been divided over whether milk outperforms sports drinks. Dairy producers have been eager to break into the multibillion-dollar market, often sponsoring research into milk's athletic benefits that some call biased. So the debate continues, but milk has been getting a lot of attention.
In a study published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism in June, researchers found people who drank milk after training were able to exercise longer in their next session than people who had sports drinks or water.
Cockburn advised athletes to drink milk immediately after working out. "The damage caused by exercise leads to a breakdown of the protein structures in your muscles, but that doesn't happen until 24 to 48 hours later," she said. If athletes drink milk right after training, then by the time it is digested, the milk's nutrients are ready to be absorbed by the muscles that have been hurt.
"It's the form of the carbohydrate and the nutrients in milk that is most important," said Emma Cockburn, a lecturer in sports coaching at Northumbria University in northeast England who led the study, which was partially paid for by the dairy industry.
Drinking milk also may help athletes recover quicker if they are performing multiple times in a day. For people who can't stomach the idea of plain milk, experts recommend adding some chocolate or other artificial flavor. At the Beijing Olympics, six-time gold medallist Michael Phelps regularly downed a flavored milk drink in between races.
women who drank milk after lifting weights gained about 4.4 pounds (2 kilos) of muscle and lost about the same amount of body fat. Women who drank sports drinks put on about 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilos) of muscle but didn't lose any body fat.
"It may be that some of the components of milk — the protein, the vitamin D and the calcium — act in a synergistic fashion to promote fat loss," said Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University who led the research. Phillips has advised the Canadian Olympic Association about milk and the dairy industry paid for part of his research.
Scientists at Loughborough University have found low-fat milk is better than sports drinks for replacing fluids lost during exercise. Scientists reason there may be two reasons for that. Not only does milk have a lot of electrolytes, but it is emptied from the stomach more slowly than sports drinks, keeping the body hydrated for longer.
Attle the Vancouver Olympics, dairy farmers trained in about 85,000
But some experts warned that drinking milk after exercise isn't for everyone. Catherine Collins, a spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association and a dietician at London's St. George's Trust, said while milk may be beneficial for elite athletes who burn thousands of calories a day during their intensive training, occasional gym-goers may be better off drinking sports drinks or plain water.
Though the vitamins and proteins found in milk are present in soy milk or dietary supplements, experts say milk has better proportions of those nutrients.
Milk also may help athletes shed fat and build muscle. In a small Canadian study, experts found
GLENYS JONES Nutritionist
extra quarts (80,000 liters) of chocolate milk. Canadian athletes won a record-setting 14 gold medals. "I don't know if the milk helped, but it can't have hurt," Phillips said.
Still, even
those who promote milk as a recovery drink say it cannot entirely replace sports drinks. Because it is harder to digest, people should only drink milk after they are finished exercising, not during.
In comparison, sports drinks like Gatorade have easily digestible sugars so athletes can chug it during events to get an instant boost.
Whitmore says it may be a tough sell to persuade people to swap their energy drinks and water.
Manning keeps Colts as contenders
NFL
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
DALLAS — Only three quarterbacks in NFL history have won more games than Peyton Manning.
Only three quarterbacks have passed for more yards and touchdowns than Manning, and only two have completed more passes. His arm has few peers in the NFL record book.
But Manning does something even better as a quarterback than throw a football — he gives his team a chance to win every Sunday, every season.
Almost since the day Manning arrived in 1998, the Colts became playoff contenders. As he grew into the elite,
sion titles in the decade, matching Aikman. Bradshaw and Montana won seven.
of a franchise quarterback,
the Colts became annual
Super Bowl contenders.
The one time Manning failed to take the Colts to the playoffs in the decade was 2001 when two-time NFL rushing champion Edgerrin James suffered a season-ending knee injury in the sixth game. The Colts went on to lose seven of their final 10 games in finishing 6-10.
Since the James injury, Manning has steered the Colts to at least 10 victories in each of the next eight seasons. No other quarterback in NFL history has ever done that. Counting the postseason, he has quarterbacked the Colts to 108 victories in 144 games since 2002.
And that's why the Colts remain the team to beat in 2010. Manning is fresh off
Almost since the day Manning arrived in 1998, the Colts became playoff contenders. As he grew into the stature of a franchise quarterback, the colts became superbowl contenders.
And Manning has achieved
a record fourth NFL MVP season and a second career Super Bowl appearance. He is the best player in his sport.
Manning started every game of the 2000 decade and took the Colts to the playoffs nine times. Hall of Famers Terry Bradshaw (1970s), Joe Montana (1980s) and Troy Aikman (1990s) all took their teams to the playoffs eight times in a decade. Manning won six divi-
thoseheights with flawed teams. Manning managed 12 victories and a league MVP award in 2004 despite playing with the NFLS 29th-ranked defense.
Manning managed 13 victories in 2007 despite a lineup that lost an NFL runner-up 81 games by starters because of injury.
Manning managed 12 victories in 2008 and another MVP honor despite playing with the NFLs 31st-ranked rushing attack and worst-ranked special teams. He took the Colts to the Super Bowl and again was the league MVP in 2009 with the
NFLs worst rushing attack and 24th-ranked run defense.
Manning carried the Colts to their lone title of the decade in 2006 despite playing with the worst run defense (32nd in the NFL), worst scoring defense (23rd) and worst special teams (30th) of any Super Bowl champion.
Inexperienced wideouts Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon will be experienced in 2010. Forced to play last year because of the departure of Marvin Harrison and the absence of Gonzalez, the rookie Collier turned in 60 catches and seven touchdowns and second-year man Garcon had 47 catches and a team-best 16.3-yard average. Both will be better in 2010.
So will Donald Brown, the team's No.1 draft pick in 2009 who carried the ball just 78 times in the shadow of Pro Bowl halfback Joseph Addai. Also, 2010 No.1 draft pick Jerry Hughes of TCU arrives to make a speed pass rush featuring Pro Bowlers Dwight Freeyen and Robert Mathis even faster.
So pencil in the Colts as the AFC champion, and they'll face the Cowboys in the Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium. The Cowboys will have the home field, but the Colts will have Manning.
In today's NFL, championships are won and lost at the quarterback position. So go with the best player of his generation in the Super Bowl — Manning.
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