Many of us know that peppermint is good for a stomach upset and even freshens the breath — for a while, anyway.

Now scientists in the U.S. are claiming that it also increases alertness by as much as one-third.

More, it reduces tiredness by 15pc, they say.

Peppermint is obviously a herb you should have on your shelf, not to mention a box of mint teabags.

For most people coffee is an innocuous beverage associated with hanging out among friends in Starbucks or more gentile tearooms.

For others — let’s call them power users — it’s a nasty addiction that causes heart palpitations, panic attacks and other alarming side effects. The main culprit, of course, is caffeine.

We should be aware that caffeine is present in quantity in chocolate and many soft drinks, like Coca Cola, and less so in various teas. It’s hard to escape.

So how can you give it up? Here’s a simple Sideways method that will cause you little pain and avoids the withdrawal symptoms often referred to as “cold turkey”. It involves an eight-day tapering down period which gently eases you off what has now become a poison to you.

Don’t give up coffee overnight. That just condemns you to four or five days of headaches and nausea. Try switching to tea instead. This means the English variety of black tea. Black tea has some caffeine but less than coffee, so the jump is not a quantum leap.

After four days of that, switch to green tea, which has very little caffeine, but huge health benefits from the high levels of antioxidants.

You can actually stick with green tea after the four days, if you like the taste — many don’t — but this is the point at which you can say goodbye to caffeine completely.

It’s up to you.

Tomatoes have long been known to possess many health benefits. Whether eaten raw in salads and sandwiches, or cooked and processed into soups, purees, pastes and sauces, the good news just keeps on coming.

We’ve heard about their effect in preventing various types of cancer, of prostate and the skin, and the humble fruit’s use against heart disease and stroke. Now it’s a great cosmetic too.

The benefits are credited to lycopene, the pigment behind the distinctive red skin and a powerful antioxidant.

Professor Birch-Machin, of Newcastle University believes tomatoes are a cheap and simple way of improving health and looking good.

After a joint study by Manchester and Newcastle universities, he said, “I went into the study as a sceptic, but I was quite surprised with the significance of the findings.”

The British Society for Investigative Dermatology’s annual conference was told that tests using ultra-violet lamps showed that tomato-eaters were a third better protected against sunburn at the end of the study than at the start. Other tests suggested a tomato-based diet boosted production of collagen, the protein that keeps skin supple.

Tomatoes also protect the mitochondria, the parts of cells that turn food we eat into energy. “Being kind to our mitochondria is likely to contribute to improved skin health, which in turn may have an anti-ageing effect,” Professor Birch-Machin said.

The researchers now recommend two tomato-based meals a day for optimum health.

If you often feel a bit down or even truly depressed, you are almost certainly suffering from a deficiency of serotonin — the “Happiness Hormone”.

A basket of fruit with tryptophan in mind

Now a new ebook that tackles this problem in a Sideways manner is available by download. Caroline Longmore, a French doctor has created a programme for everyone, based on a natural diet.

Serotonin is derived from the essential amino acid tryptophan, which the body cannot make itself.

So for many of us, unless we take enough tryptophan through our diets, we may suffer a deficiency.

… The best way is through diet: eat foods rich in trypotophan and avoid sugar and processed carbohyrates which artificially raise blood-sugar levels, leaving you feeling temorarily better before even wilder mood swings. … you will also need enough vitamins B3 and B6, magnesium and zinc.

Typical foods recommended are, bananas, turkey, spinach, beans and seeds, cottage cheese, plums, lobster and pineapple.

You can download The Serotonin Secret, By Dr. Caroline Longmore and Katrin Hempel as an ebook, from www.galennaturopathic.com for £5.95, or dollar equivalent.