Skim milk as good as isotonic sport drink as a pre-hydration beverage

In the study, no time differences were found between skim milk and isotonic sports drink in the completion of an 18.6 km cycling time-trial. However, there could be an additional benefit to the use of skim milk relative to an isotonic sports drink. The use of skim milk could contribute to reducing skeletal muscle damage caused by exercise, presumably due to the amino acid content in milk.

The results show that the use of skim milk as a pre-hydration beverage observed no differences on fluid homeostasis or performance when compared to isotonic sports drink in trained cyclists. Also, the use of skim milk presented good gastrointestinal tolerance within the athletes. Therefore, the use of skim milk could be considered another effective hydration strategy for athletes with different beverages preferences.

Source: https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-020-00346-9#Sec7