This is what the Dairy Farmers of Canada are saying about chocolate milk on their website, www.rechargewithmilk.com. It states that chocolate milk is loaded with both the proteins and carbohydrates your body needs to repair and recharge after strenuous physical activity and drinking some 15 to 30 minutes afterwards can help speed up your recovery.

“Protein is especially important for recovery if you plan to work out again within the next 24 hours,” the site says. “Research shows that a beverage containing both protein and carbohydrates can be more effective at increasing next-workout performance than a carb-only beverage. In fact, those who had both carbs and protein after their workout showed performance gains during their next workout of between 21 per cent and 55 per cent.”

Without a central content regulator, websites can post just about anything and get away with it. The Dairy Farmers, however, have backed up their claims with links to a quintet of studies published in a variety of nutritional journals.

One report, called “Chocolate milk as a post-exercise recovery aid” examined nine male, endurance-trained cyclists who completed an interval workout followed by four hours of recovery and a subsequent endurance trial to exhaustion on three separate days. The subjects drank unmarked containers of chocolate milk, fluid replacement drinks or carbohydrate replacement drinks. The results showed the time to exhaustion and total work were significantly greater among those who consumed chocolate milk and the fluid replacement drink.

“The results of this study suggest that chocolate milk is an effective recovery aid between two exhausting exercise bouts,” wrote Indiana University researchers in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.

The chocolate milk education continues under the “Protein Power” tab, which details how your body uses carbohydrate stores, called glycogen, in your muscles for energy. As they become depleted, so does your ability to achieve peak performance. The faster glycogens are replenished after you’re finished working out, ideally within half an hour, the better you can perform at your next workout. Protein also aids in the recovery process by repairing damaged muscle tissue and promoting muscle growth.

Melanie Olivier, sport dietician and consultant for the Canadian Olympic Committee, provides a testimonial:

"Chocolate milk is an ideal drink for post-workout recovery. I recommend it to my athletes because it is available everywhere and contains everything necessary for recuperation after a workout—carbohydrates, protein and electrolytes,” she says.

The “Recharge With Milk” site also addresses two of chocolate milk’s natural competitors—protein shakes and white milk.

The former, it says, contain many of the essential nutrients needed by your body after strenuous exercise but they’ve got far more protein than most athletes need as part of a balanced diet. There are also more basic reasons in chocolate milk’s favor, including that a 500-milliliter serving costs less than half of a protein shake, there’s no measuring and mixing (and none of those annoying floating globs of powder), and it’s difficult to travel more than a few blocks without passing a grocery store, convenience store, restaurant or fast-food joint that doesn’t have chocolate milk on the shelf or menu.

Of course, the site reminds your inner child that chocolate milk also tastes great.

Label readers are also able to compare nutritional facts of chocolate milk, white milk, sports drinks, energy drinks, water, fruit juices and pop under the “Chocolate Milk Compared” tab.

For example, a 500-milliliter container of chocolate milk has more calories than the same amount of white milk (332 versus 258), but fewer grams of fat (five versus ten). They have roughly the same amount of protein (16 grams versus 17 grams), but chocolate milk has more carbohydrates (55 grams to 24 grams) and more electrolytes (322 milligrams of sodium versus 212 milligrams and 898 milligrams of potassium versus 774 milligrams).

Sports drinks—the beverage of choice among most athletes—have 127 calories, zero grams of fat, zero grams of protein, 32 carbohydrates, 204 milligrams of sodium and 56 milligrams of potassium in a 500-milliliter container.

Energy drinks, which have carved out a significant niche among athletes in recent years, have 235 calories, zero grams of fat, one gram of protein, 57 carbohydrates, 435 milligrams of sodium and 15 milligrams of potassium.

Soft drinks, predictably, fare poorly, with 220 calories, zero fat and protein, 56 grams of carbohydrates, 20 milligrams of sodium and 6 milligrams of potassium. Water, meanwhile, has 10 milligrams of sodium and nothing else of nutritional value.

Considering they’re close relatives, the chocolate milk website doesn’t slag white milk so much as position it as a better alternative for people who aren’t as hard core with their exercise. It also points out that white milk doesn’t need to be consumed within a 15- to 30-minute time limit as chocolate milk does in order to provide the benefit. Instead, you can pour yourself a glass “anytime after exercise.”

“If you are a moderate to high-intensity exerciser (such as a runner, hockey player, marathoner or triathlete), you may need the higher levels of carbs found in chocolate milk to replenish muscle glycogen burned during exercise,” the site says under the “Chocolate or White?” tab.

“If you are a lower-intensity exerciser (such as a walker or casual golfer) the additional carbs in chocolate milk may not be needed, since significantly less glycogen is burned during your workout. For you, white milk is a great choice along with a balanced diet.”

So is this brand in line online? Considering the brand is really the Diary Farmers of Canada—yes. The website is hearty, healthy and informative, and hoping to grow a whole new crop of consumers with what many may suspect is a little fertilizer.