Post match recovery starts here...

Great news for playground heroes and Sunday league stalwarts: chocolate milk is good for you.

Recent studies have found that the tasty beverage is ideal for fuelling performance and helping your body recover from a workout – making it perfect for lunch boxes and kitbags alike.

Research from the University of Texas at Austin compared the recovery benefits of drinking low-fat chocolate milk after exercise to the effects of a typical sports drink, with an unlikely winner emerging.

“Serious and amateur athletes alike enjoyed physical recovery benefits when they drank low-fat chocolate milk after a vigorous workout,” said lead researcher Dr John Ivy.

“Study participants had more muscle and less fat, improved times while working out and overall better physical shape than peers who consumed sports beverages containing just carbohydrates.”

The benefits of chocolate milk have not gone unnoticed in the world of football. Tottenham nutritionist Matt Lovell is an advocate: “Chocolate milk contains sugar, protein, minerals and B-vitamins – that’s a pretty good formula for recovery. You get energy from the carbohydrates and the protein helps repair your muscles,” he explains to FFT.

“Regular sports drinks help with hydration, but they don’t have any protein so only help with part of the recovery story.”