You come home from a distressing day at work, aggravated by the tangled traffic on the road. Youre tired, grouchy and starving. Stop right there! Before reaching for the ref door, take 10 seconds to think what youd like to munch on. Certain foods trigger the release of body chemicals that increase your stress levels just as some foods help calm you down. Heres what eh experts recommend:

Relax tense neck muscles.
Tense situations release hormones that contract muscles. For women, the most common muscles that tighten up are those in the back of the neck.
What you need: The mineral magnesium effectively relaxes muscles.
Source: Spinach and almonds

Feel good fast.
Youve done our homework and planning. But, being the worrier that you are, you cant help feeling edgy when faced with tough tasks.
What you need: Boost you performance with the essential amino acid.
Source: Eggs and turkey meat

Energy under pressure.
When youre stressed out, you feel fatigued faster.
What you need: Vitamin B5 increases the production of cortisone and other stress-relieving hormones.
Source: mushrooms, pork and beef pumps.

Soothe a queasy tummy.
Constant stress can aggravate peptic ulcers, which afflict an estimated 11 percent of women.
What you need: Vitamin A helps regulate cortisol, a stress hormone linked to ulcer attacks. The Lancet found that patients who got adequate doses of vitamin A had faster-healing ulcers than other vitamin-deficient patients.
Sources: Green and yellow-orange fruits and vegetables like papaya, spinach and carrots.

Prevent bad menstrual moods.
When you red-letter days come along, happy-go-lucky-you morphs into bitchy-miss-blue.
What you need: A lack of vitamin B6 can lead to moodiness and fatigue. A research in Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology found that during menstruation, the extra estrogen in the bloodstream can weaken the bodys ability to absorb mood-mellowing B6.
Source: Eat avocados, bananas and tuna, especially during your period.

Calm down.
Short of racing around like a headless chicken, youre fantasy when under pressure.
What you need: Vitamin C can help the pressure-cooker personality to stay calm, cool and collected. According to a recent study in Psychopharmacology, vitamin C regulates the production of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, thus lowering anxiety-elevated blood pressure and easing stress-related symptoms.
Source: Citrus fruits, watermelon, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, cauliflowers