Power drinks, move over.

New studies have shown drinking chocolate milk after hard workouts can restore exhausted muscles.

Joel Stager, physiology professor at Indiana University, found that drinking chocolate milk after a tough workout is the best thing an athlete can do.

Unlike white milk, chocolate milk has a high carbohydrate and protein content that is ideal for exhausted muscles.

It replaces nutrients that are lost through sweat during long workouts.

Stager said he discovered chocolate milk was a healthy drink when he compared it to supplements.

“An athlete once showed me a supplement, and I then took it to the grocery store to compare the ingredients to chocolate milk,” Stager said.

“The ingredients were so similar.”

Chocolate milk works like supplements because it replaces carbohydrates in the muscle cell. The beverage has a four-to-one carbohydrate-to-protein ratio.

Rick Sharp, professor of health and human performance, said it would be a fine after-workout drink.

“[Chocolate milk] has carbohydrates, fat and proteins in it,” he said. “And anytime anyone exercises intensely for a length of time, their body will use a lot of the body storage of carbohydrates.

“The real benefit of drinking it is that it has proteins that help to accelerate the recovery of carbohydrates.”

Stager said the type of physical activity doesn’t matter when it comes to drinking chocolate milk.

“Any athlete that trains intensively and does so multiple times a day, [chocolate milk] helps out the best,” Stager said. “Any kind of flavored milk would work. It can be chocolate, strawberry or even a milkshake.”

ISU swimming coach Duane Sorenson said his athletes use the sports drink Go, because it’s high in complex carbohydrates and proteins.

“If [the athletes] can’t get the proper carbohydrates and proteins, we ask them to take complex carbohydrates within 15 to 20 minutes after their workout,” he said.

“Usually half an apple or bagel will help the body recover faster. Chocolate milk would probably do the same thing; it has protein in the milk and complex carbohydrates in a milkshake.”

Sharp said athletes can get adequate vitamins and minerals and other nutrients from their regular diet.

“Eating a good meal and drinking water is always the way to go,” Sharp said. “There are times they need to supplement that with extra calories and extra carbohydrates right after competition and practice. It helps them recover that way.”