Friend Or Foe: Should Milk Be Apart Of Your Bodybuilding Diet?

Useful or harmful?

When it comes to having a diet that’s going to bring your physique to the next level there’s no doubting the fact that you must watch your protein, carb, and fat intake. It’s simply a rule of thumb. Watching your macronutrients is essential to putting your body into an anabolic state that will allow you to get lean and shredded. Nutrition is always a tricky thing when it comes to bodybuilding. Complicating it more are all the choices out there that can make or break your physique. One of those ambiguous foods is milk.

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Every bodybuilder is obsessed with protein as it’s considered the lifes blood of muscle building nutrition. But carbs and fats are all essential to a bodybuilders diet which is why the men of the old school were enamored with milk in the past. It has protein, carbs, and fats as well as all the 8 essential amino acids for muscle building and recovery. For many it’s as simple as calculating the macronutrients and putting milk into your diet.

But here’s the catch.

Not all ilk is created equal. Raw milk may have a greater protein and fat content, but it’s considered unsafe to drink as it’s not pasteurized. Skim milk has less fat and carbs with a decent amount of protein, but even so, if a bodybuilder is lactose intolerant then drinking milk will ultimately do more harm than good. Besides that, milk can ultimately increase your cortisol levels which means less muscle gains and more belly fat as a reward. Many have wanted to replace protein powders with milk for post workout nutrition, and while the lactose based substance may contain whey, it’s still processed differently making a whey protein powder more useful than simply drinking a glass of milk.

You have more questions on exactly how milk can effect your muscle building process. Luckily for you, Jerry Brainum has the answers to your questions. His website Applied Metabolics covers everything you’ve ever wanted to know about consuming milk products and how it effects the body. The newsletter is chock full of information that will enlighten even the most informed bodybuilder.

Is milk apart of your nutrition plan?

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