Chocolate milk

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A glass of chocolate milk

Chocolate milk is a flavored milk drink. It can be purchased pre-mixed or made at home with either cocoa powder and a sweetener (such as sugar), or with melted chocolate, chocolate syrup, or chocolate milk mix. Other ingredients, such as starch, salt, carrageenan, vanilla, or artificial flavoring, may be added.

When not intended for immediate consumption, chocolate milk should be refrigerated or kept cool like plain milk.

1 Health benefits
2 Heated chocolate milk
3 Culture
4 Companies which sell chocolate milk products
5 See also
6 Notes

[edit] Health benefits

Chocolate milk has been suggested for use after intense workouts for its "magic ratio" of carbohydrates to protein, among other nutritional properties.^[1]

For this same reason, it may also act as an effective hangover remedy.^{[citation needed]}

Chocolate milk is often thought to contain chemicals which interfere with the body's ability to absorb calcium. However, this is untrue. Chocolate milk does contain oxalic acid, which binds with calcium and prevents it from being absorbed, but it is in such a small amount that it should not cause any worry.^[2]

[edit] Heated chocolate milk

Though it should be bought and stored cold, chocolate milk can be heated to produce a beverage which is called hot chocolate. Some brands of pre-mixed chocolate milk display labels with messages such as "Try Me HOT!" to encourage consumers to use the product as both a cold and a hot milk drink.

[edit] Culture

In Israel, a popular way to drink chocolate milk is out of a small plastic bag. Like a juicebox, shoco-bi'sakit is portable and convenient. However, shoco-bi'sakit does not require a straw; instead, it is drunk by biting a corner of the bag and sucking through the small tear.

In the U.S., most school lunch programs provide both white and pre-mixed chocolate milk as beverage choices.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin used chocolate milk as a metaphor for racial integration in his Chocolate City speech.