If the local 24-hour Fitness is any measure, sports drinks seem to be the favored breakfast of champions these days. But a new study by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin suggests that the best pre-workout meal is a whole grain cereal with milk.

For the experiment, 12 trained cyclists consumed either a sports drink or a whole grain cereal with milk before beginning a two-hour moderate workout at a comfortable pace. “We wanted to understand their relative effects on glycogen repletion and muscle protein synthesis for the average individual,” said exercise physiologist Lynne Kammer, who led the research team. “We found that glycogen repletion, or the replenishment of immediate muscle fuel, was just as good after whole grain cereal consumption and that some aspects of protein synthesis were actually better.” The report appears in this month’s Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

For amateur athletes and anyone trying to stay in shape, the researchers concluded, having a bowl of cereal and milk before a workout is a smarter–and less expensive–way to refuel than drinking a sports drink. Whole grains and milk also have the advantage of supplying a rich combination of many vitamins and minerals not found in many sports drinks–including calcium and vitamin D, which are essential to maintaining strong bones.

© 2009 PDQhealth

Tags: pre-workout meals, whole grains