With three NFL games scheduled on Thanksgiving Day, you might think that the lowly Lions’ performance against the mighty Titans is what is causing you to feel sleepy. Fresh on the heels of their first loss of the season, the Titans aren’t about to make the game interesting, offering a real snoozer opportunity for football fans instead.

Yet, there could be something else at work on Turkey Day, a naturally occurring ingredient called tryptophan, found in that big bird you scarfed down just prior to kick-off. Can it make you sleepy? According to scientists it can, providing enough of a problem for some people to cause them to fall asleep when they least expect it.

Tryptophan acts like a natural sedative, an essential amino acid that your body cannot make. Amino acids come from food sources and tryptophan helps your body produce the B-vitamin niacin. That vitamin helps your body produce serotonin, a chemical that acts as a calming agent for the brain, something that also helps you to sleep. Thus, that sleepy feeling you get from eating several slices of turkey can be attributed to tryptophan.

Although experts recognize that tryptophan does play a role in contributing to making you sleepy, the entire Thanksgiving meal can cause you to feel tired. This means that if you skip the turkey and choose to bulk up on stuffing, bread, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, your body will still feel stuffy and have to work extra hard to digest all of that food. That extra work means your body will expend more energy and that energy depletion will make you feel tired. Drink a glass or two of wine with your meal and you may find that you’re even more tired, turkey or not.

Then again, if you’re having trouble sleeping at night, a leftover turkey sandwich could be the best sleeping pill for you. Especially when consumed on an empty stomach, you just may be able to take in the right amount of tryptophan to produce the right amount of serotonin to help you fall asleep.

Now if that isn’t sound advice for a good night’s sleep, I don’t know what is!

Source: Howstuffworks.com

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Tags: dinner, food, Thanksgiving, tryptophan, turkey

Thanksgiving I find to be one of the most wonderful holidays of all, a day when Americans of every race, creed, and gender can give thanks to their Creator for all of the blessings received for the year. I have wonderful memories of getting together with family members and friends down through the years, enjoying their company, good food, and catching a little bit of football too.

We’ll be having dinner with friends this year and will be bringing several dessert items as part of our contribution to the meal. Years ago, my grandmother followed by my mother (her daughter), would do all of the shopping, baking, and cooking, expecting no help with the preparation of the meal. In today’s busy society, everyone chips in or they come up with another plan such as going out to eat.

If you’re hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, you may be shocked at just how expensive food has gotten over the past year. If you will be hosting a small army of people, you’ll be paying a large sum of money to feed everyone, a possible budget buster during these challenging economic times.

Let’s take a look at three ways you can save money on holiday groceries while still serving up a meal that everyone will love:

Shop Carefully – By now you’ve seen a number of grocery store advertisements for Thanksgiving and they’re the perfect place to look for seasonal savings. You may be able to do all of your shopping at one store, especially if the weekly sales are spectacular. Look for savings on cranberry sauce, stuffing, turkey, cole slaw, squash, corn, pies, cakes, and all of the trimmings. Many stores push their Thanksgiving items, knowing that you’ll be much more inclined to shop with them then flee to a competitor.

Clip Coupons – Extend your grocery savings further by being on the look out for manufacturer coupons. Store brands can be quite good, but if you have your heart set on a particular type of mayonnaise, yams, or turkey, then you’ll want to stick with your favorite brand. No newspaper subscription? No worries — many coupons can be found online and printed out.

Share Responsibilities – Some hosts cringe at the thought of asking their guests to bring food, but by doing that you can spread the cost of the meal amongst yourselves. You can still handle the turkey and most of the fixings as you don’t want someone to forget a key part of the meal or lose out if they end up getting sick and cannot attend. If wine is desired, ask a guest to bring a bottle or two and allow other guests to supply bread, pie, cake, and other dessert items. You’ll save a big chunk on the grocery bill by sharing!

Finally, enjoy the day with your family and friends. Don’t be shy about asking for clean up help, allowing guests to clear the table, set up coffee or to rinse dishes. Holidays are meant to be enjoyed by the host and guests alike so have a Happy Thanksgiving and don’t eat too much!

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Tags: family, food, friends, groceries, holidays, shopping, Thanksgiving

Coupons have long been a staple of American life, offering clippable savings on a wide variety of food, clothing, entertainment, and personal items. When I was young, coupons ranging from five to ten cents were common, with the occasional twenty-five cent savings garnering the most attention.

These days coupon savings of at least fifty cents seem to get noticed, with customers preferring savings of one dollar and above or those for buy one/get one (BOGO) free items. Sunday newspapers long controlled the distribution market, sharing advertising revenue with coupons sent by US mail. Today, that has all changed as internet and “clipless” coupons prevail.

If you’re looking to trim the cost of your grocery bill, coupons can help you do just that. Let’s explore ways that you can save, to help you shave ten, twenty, even fifty percent or more off of your weekly grocery bill:

Go Clipless – In exchange for giving the grocery store some of your personal information, you can obtain a grocery card that can be used at that store which will automatically deduct store coupons for you without your needing to clip them. Saves you time and hassles, but make sure that you aren’t giving the store more information about yourself then you want as you are granting them the ability to track your spending habits.

Newspapers, Magazines, and Flyers – The old standby are those coupons that still appear in the Sunday paper, are placed in magazines, or come in flyers via US mail. Their numbers have dropped over the years, but big savings on all of your favorite brand grocery items can still be found.

Double or Triple Coupons – The battle for customers is still intense, therefore some supermarkets still offer special double or triple coupons (usually up to $1). Suddenly, that fifty cent coupon is worth one dollar and, when you combine that with grocery store specials, you can realize additional savings.

Internet Coupons – Recognizing that so many consumers rely upon the internet for their news and human contact, those paper coupons can often be found on the web, oftentimes right on the manufacturers website. Print them out, bring them to the store, and save just as you would with any other coupon.

Special Coupons – Besides each of the other mentioned sources for coupon savings, your pizza box is frequently the place where food coupons can be found. In addition, check the back of your favorite breakfast cereal, the inside lid of your preferred coffee, and the inside of the label on your peanut butter jar. Some coupons truly are hidden in plain site!

Although coupons aren’t always looked upon by consumers with favor, when used they can yield tremendous savings, just what every cash strapped American wants today.

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Tags: clipless coupons, clippable coupons, clothing, discounts, food, groceries, personal items, pizza, savings, shopping, specials, supermarkets