“Refueling” Athletes: Social Media’s Influence on The Consumption of Chocolate Milk as a Recovery Beverage

Chocolate-flavoured cow’s milk has changed its image from a playful beverage for young children to a powerful post-workout beverage suitable for and helpful to elite athletes such as Ironman competitors. Elite athletes, as a respected hegemonic cultural class, have fuelled this shift in perception by endorsing chocolate milk consumption amongst both their own group and less elite athletes. This paper examines the twitter handle @gotchocomilk, and how its presence in social media has served to promote the consumption of chocolate milk as a post-workout recovery beverage. It considers how elite athletes, as a ruling hegemonic group, have become marketers by proxy given their role in the dominant class by incorporating new media and technology into the hegemonic role. Particular attention is given to the questionable health benefits of chocolate milk and problems with its consumption by athletes and the general public. While twitter has served to promote chocolate milk as a beneficial post-workout recovery beverage, a closer examination of physiological and medical literature questions the benefits of this product. The paper identifies a meaningful phenomenon in our food culture: the promotion of food products via extant hegemonic structure.