Abstract

According to the nutritional requirement of athletes during exercise, this study aims to invent a drink which mainly contains whey protein and is also added with saccharides and electrolyte, etc., to keep athletes’ athletic ability and accelerate the recovery of physical ability. Athletes that were going to participate in a track and field sports meeting of province were asked to drink the whey protein drinks during training and the index of Red Blood Cell (RBC), Hemoglobin (HB) concentration, Hematocrit (HCT), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) of athletes’ blood were measured. The blood sugar concentration of athletes in control group before and after the experiment was 4.06±0.55 and 3.25±0.58 mmol/L, respectively, which lowered about 17% (p<0.05) and the difference was statistically significant. However, the blood sugar concentration of athletes in experimental group before and after the experiment was 4.34±0.65 and 4.56±0.52 mmol/L respectively, which increased about 3.5% (p<0.05) and the difference had no statistical significance. The experimental results showed that whey protein drinks could effectively protect body’s erythrocyte function, prevent decline of HB as well as strengthen physical ability, relieve fatigue and maintain the muscle microstructure. Therefore, whey protein drinks can effectively strengthen athletes’ immunocompetence as well as the muscle strength and it is also antioxidative and can prevent body damage and relieve fatigue. What’s more, whey protein’s various sports nutritional properties enable it to be widely applied to sports nutrition.

Keywords:

Dairy products, sports drinks, sports nutrition, whey protein,

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Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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