Low-fat, lactose-free and leucine-enriched chocolate cow milk prototype: A preliminary study on sensorial acceptability and gastrointestinal complaints following exhaustive exercise

Abstract

Background Chocolate milk has gained recent scientific support as a recovery drink. However, it is known that high exercise-demand triggers gastrointestinal discomfort which continues post-exercise, thereby hindering this nutritional strategy. In addition, those who are lactose intolerant cannot benefit from a milk-based beverage. Thus, the aim of this preliminary study was to develop a low-fat, lactose-free, and leucine-enriched chocolate cow milk prototype (CML) representing nutrition-related recommendations for football players, as well as assess athletes’ individual subjective outcomes for gastrointestinal complaints and sensorial acceptability in a field-based setting following strenuous team-sport physical demands. Methods This study followed a single group and repeated-measured design with 10 football players (23 ± 2 yrs., 74 ± 14 kg, 174 ± 5 cm) who consumed CML following a 90-min football match simulation protocol (FMP). The total CML intake to achieve 0.150 g leucine·kg [BW]·h− 1 occurred in aliquots of 50, 30 and 20% at 0-, 45- and 75-min post-FMP, respectively. Athletes were evaluated by the prevalence, the type and severity (bloating, nausea, flatulence, and gastric reflux) of gastrointestinal complaints and sensorial acceptability (overall perception, appearance, consistency, and flavour) after drinking each aliquot in a 4-h recovery period. Results The CML showed higher scores for “Product Acceptability Index” (88%) and sensorial acceptability (~ 8 in 9-point hedonic scale). Kendall’s W with bootstrapped resample (95%CI) revealed agreement among respondents as “moderate” (overall perception, flavour) to “strong” (appearance, consistency) and with no significant agreement differences between rater response in the timeline analysis (0.57 up to 0.87; p > 0.05). Agresti-Caffo add-4 analysis (95% confidence interval, [95%CI]) revealed no differences in each time-point analysis versus baseline for athletes classified as having severe gastrointestinal symptoms, but confirmed concern with bloating (three athletes showed a transient response at 2-h and only one continued until 3-h; p = 0.051). Conclusions These preliminary findings suggest that CML presents good taste and high acceptability by the sampled athletes. Thus, CML may be an alternative sport drink for immediate post-workout supplementation to overcome the energy deficit, offer co-ingested leucine, maintain palatability and adherence including lactose intolerance following a team sport-specific fatigue. Trial registration RBR-2vmpz9, 10/12/2019, retrospectively registered.

Skimmed, Lactose-Free Milk Ingestion Postexercise: Rehydration Effectiveness and Gastrointestinal Disturbances Versus Water and a Sports Drink in Physically Active People

“…However, for all postexercise and postfluid ingestion time of measurements, no differences were identified among categories or time of measurement. The report of very mild symptoms after milk ingestion postexercise, and no significant differences among beverages, agrees with Karp et al (2006), da Silva et al (2021 and Russo et al (2021), which show very low severity in reported GI symptoms.…”

Sports Nutrition: Diets, Selection Factors, Recommendations

“…The developers proposed a lactose-free "ready-to-eat" product that was tested on a group of soccer players. The findings suggest that CML tasted good and was well tolerated by athletes in this study [114]. This suggested that CML could be an alternative sports drink that would provide post-workout energy recovery while avoiding discomfort for athletes with lactose intolerance.…”

A narrative review of the moderating effects and repercussion of exercise intervention on osteoporosis: ingenious involvement of gut microbiota and its metabolites

“…Balducci et al [53] showed that long-term sustained aerobic exercise and resistance exercise with moderate-to-low intensity could reduce the expression of inflammatory cytokines (such as IL-1β and TNF-α), while increase the expression of antiinflammatory cytokines (such as IL-4 and IL-10) in the body. Meanwhile, according to previous reports, especially in partial professional athletes, the acute and vigorous exercise might induce the transient gastrointestinal symptoms (such as nausea, diarrhea, gastrointestinal bleeding, and so on) [54][55][56]. However, the participation in normal moderate intensity exercise is considered to resist intestinal inflammatory diseases, and the gastrointestinal disorders usually do not occur after the moderate intensity exercise, which might be associated with the involvement of GM in regulation [57].…”