Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
The title of the article is "No, chocolate milk does not improve the recovery of athletes." Which is a stupid. Of course chocolate milk improves the recovery of athletes. And even water isn't a true placebo because it has a physiological effect, that of hydration. If one were testing aspirin vs. ibuprofen, is the aspirin a placebo? Of course not. A placebo does nothing. From the Latin: placebo "I shall please," "a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect."
A true title and conclusion might be, "Chocolate milk improves the recovery of athletes no more than this researcher's favorite substitute for it." I would have no problem with that as long as the research continued through at least a couple weeks of hard training and follow-up.
I already addressed what I thought of the title above. Two things: water as a placebo for CM is a poor because it doesn't have the same psycological effect, thats why artificially flavored and sweetened solutions are used, just read the studies. Second, comparing to a placebo doesn't answer the question being asked in most of the studies(not the article but the actual studies) which is why CM is compared to carbs only, carbs+electrolytes, or chocolate soy or almond milk in some studies etc, the question being asked is if there is anything special about chocolate milk that provides additional benefit. Thats why I advocate to look beyond article summaries and look at the data itself whenever possible to draw your own conclusions.