5 Drinks That Help You Calm Down

1. Drink a glass of milk. It contains tryptophan, which as it is metabolized is converted to mood-boosting serotonin. Plus, its calcium, magnesium and potassium content may help keep blood pressure down.

2. Drink hot cocoa. Warm drinks raise your body temperature—a feeling we associate with comfort, so it triggers a similar response in our brains.

3. Order black tea instead of coffee. A study by University College London shows that drinking black tea four times a day for six weeks lowered the stress hormone cortisol after a stressful event.

4. Drink green tea—packed with theanine, which increases the brain’s output of relaxation-inducing alpha waves and reduces the output of tension-making beta waves.

5. Drink a glass of cold water, then go for a walk outside. The water gets your blood moving and the air invigorates by stimulating the endorphins that de-stress you.

Source: shine.yahoo.com

Food Makers Want To Sell You Cheap Food

But lower-priced “value” products can also have wide margins because they’re cheaper to make. “Food companies will be careful to shift consumers to products that are still high margin,” says Robert Moskow, an analyst with Credit Suisse. “Powdered Kool-Aid beverages are one of the most profitable food products in history.”

Also Monday, the milk industry will begin running ads touting milk as a bargain. Financial guru Suze Orman will don the familiar milk mustache in a print ad that reads: “Even at today’s prices, a glass of milk only costs about a quarter…” The ad is a big departure from prior “Got Milk” campaigns that focused on the nutritional value of milk.

The milk industry plans to spend just under $1 million on the Suze Orman ads.

The WSJ says the new campaigns indicative of a food industry that’s afraid of consumers. Shoppers have been pinched by a 7.5% jump in food prices in the first 8 months of 2008, and have started buying generics. Oh, no!

If you’re a member of the PTA, you can expect ConAgra to start giving you the hard sell on their cheap Banquet frozen dinners