And the Ultimate Sports Drink is...Chocolate Milk

An exercise kinesiology professor at Indiana University in Bloomington has some research results that the makers of Gatorade and other sports drinks are finding hard to swallow: chocolate milk helps  athletes to maintain peak performance as well or better than some of most loudly touted sports drinks.
The L.A. Times reports on the study, which consisted of three trials conducted at one-week intervals, in which nine male cyclists performed a strenuous workout then drank one of three drinks. One group got standard 2 percent chocolate milk, another drank fluid- and electrolyte-replenishing Gatorade and a third group Endurox R4, a specially formulated beverage with a "patented 4 to 1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein" and other ingredients aimed at replenishing muscle glycogen stores and helping rebuild muscle. After a rest period, the cyclists exercised again, this time to exhaustion. Researchers found  that cyclists who drank chocolate milk at the break were able to continue cycling about 50 percent longer than those who drank Endurox R4 and about equally as long as those who drank Gatorade. The study, whose conclusions are disputed by the makers of Gatorade, and Endurox R4, was funded in part by the dairy industry.  Read more in the L.A. Times.