Photo by Jasmine Bible
Boulder-based Skratch Labs — famed for its innovative exercise nutrition science and for changing the way the world’s top cyclists, as well as everyday athletes, hydrate and fuel during training and in life — today announced it is entering the recovery drink market with a new product.
The iconic sports nutrition brand, if you can even pigeonhole Skratch as such, is introducing a powdered recovery drink mix, aptly named Endurance Recovery Mix, or ERM in a nod to its first product name that never actually made it to market — the SDM, or Secret Drink Mix.
According to Skratch Labs COO Jay Peery, the foundation of every Skratch product is that real food doesn’t dehydrate you and allows you to access the nutrients within. Chemicals have to be processed and go somewhere; while most Skratch products only have a few ingredients. The ERM is a whole food product with a nutrition label, not a supplement. And this is also why Skratch Labs offerings are very select, calculated, and often take years to come to commercial fruition.
According to Skratch Labs founder and product developer Dr. Allen Lim, “We made this recovery drink mix to help take care of our friends and family, the people who are dearest to us and who we work our hardest to give the very best to. It just so happens that many of them are athletes who need a convenient and simple way to optimize their recovery after grueling workouts.”
ERM is made in Colorado and is simply mixed with water. Three flavors are now available as the company went straight to market: vanilla, coffee, and chocolate. A 12 serving bag will retail for $32.50; single servings are $3.50. They mix quite easily and taste delicious, and real.
According to Lim, here’s a look at some of the science behind the new ERM:
– Endurance Recovery Mix is designed to rapidly replenish muscle glycogen – the key fuel that is used during intense and prolonged physical activity and a fuel source that is essential to replenish to recover from endurance activity.
– Research shows that the optimal fuel source to replenish muscle glycogen post exercise is a carbohydrate and protein blend at a ratio of 4 to 5 grams of carbohydrate to 1 gram of protein. Endurance Recovery Mix is a 5:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio.
– The optimal types of carbohydrates for quickly replenishing muscle glycogen are simple sugars like glucose and fructose. Our Endurance Recovery Mix use a combination of sucrose (glucose + fructose) and glucose, to create a ratio of glucose and fructose that best matches the ratio of glucose and fructose transports in the small intestine to maximize absorption of carbohydrate into the body.
– Based on the latest research assessing protein quality and bioavailability, there is no better source of protein for humans per gram than complete milk protein, which is comprised of a ratio of whey and casein protein designed by nature. Endurance Recovery Mix uses only complete milk protein.
– The amount of Endurance Recovery Mix needed to optimize muscle glycogen depends on the amount of calories burned during one’s activity and timing. Muscle glycogen re-synthesis is optimized if an athlete can consume between 30-50% of the calories they burn during exercise within an hour of the completion of exercise.
Inline with Lim’s whole-food philosophy, he said, “We made this drink for those times when we weren’t able to be there for them with a big plate of chicken fried rice or pesto pasta — delicious real food made from scratch and cooked with love to nourish them when they need it the most. Worse than the frustration of not being there for those we care about is the idea that their next best alternative in our absence is a highly processed recovery drink loaded with excess ingredients, filler proteins, and bloated claims that after choked down make them feel worse, not better. So we set out to make something that was the next best thing to a kitchen and our direct attention – a drink that is nutritionally as sound if not better than anything we could cook, that tastes delicious, and that gives them every advantage possible when it comes to their performance. Yes, we care about performance, we care about taste, and we want everything we eat and feed to others to be real.”