Food of the Week: Milk

Food of the Week: Milk

Spartans seek quality nutrition in order to ensure optimal health and athletic performance. They need it at all times, but especially during the recovery process. They need vitamins, minerals, and most importantly protein.

And Spartans know the best way to get it is from natural and organic sources.

Where does one find a wholefood to cover these demands?

Milk.

This week we partnered with Maple Hill Creamery to break down the basics of how and why Spartans should drink their milk in the morning (and afternoon...and night).

Milk the Way Nature Intended

Keep your milk real. Keep it pure. The best way to do this is to make sure your milk comes from 100% grass-fed cows.

100% grass-fed milk is everything you love about organic, and more. Better for us, better for cows, better for the land and better for farmers.

Cows bodies are designed to eat grass - only recently have humans begun to feed them corn, grain and other foods. This affects not only the cow's health but the quality of the milk.

This is why Spartan partners with Maple Hill Creamery.

Maple Hill's cows eat only 100% organic grass, year-round, as nature intended.

Basic Milk Nutrition

An 8oz glass offers:

  • 8 grams of quality protein
  • 300mg of calcium (as much as 7 cups of broccoli)
  • 10% of your daily potassium need (as much as a banana)
  • 30% of your daily vitamin D needs
  • 3 different B vitamins to convert food into energy, help build red blood cells, and maintain the central nervous system

Protein, calcium, potassium, vitamin D, and B vitamins. These are pillars of a full and well-rounded diet.  And not just for those of us training hard hours during the week. These are things every human needs to flourish.

But it also turns out that most people’s diets are deficient in these regards. Adding milk into your routine is an easy, delicious and practical way to ensure these essential elements are put into your diet.  

However, if you decide to push your body to the max, the nutrients found in milk become even more vital for optimal health.

Milk and Athletes

An 8oz serving of milk contains 30% of your daily calcium need and 25% of your daily vitamin D need. These work together to assure proper function of processes important to athlete performance and recovery such as:

  • Muscle contraction
  • Hormone production & secretion
  • Blood pressure regulation
  • Bone growth
  • Immune function
  • Nervous system function
  • Blood clotting
  • Bone and teeth formation
  • Constriction and relaxation of blood vessels

And, of course, protein is essential to all athletes. In this article we break down why casein is a great go-to for bedtime.

Besides, there is a reason why milk is a favorite drink of choice for elite team USA athletes.

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