You finally close your laptop, but your mind is still churning with all the things you’ve got to do tomorrow. You walk into the kitchen and reach for your usual afternoon drink, and it’s only then that you realize you’ve not actually stopped moving at all. Even now, sitting down feels like something you need to earn.

Understanding What Your Body Needs

Stress is a normal part of life. When a deadline is looming, or you’ve got some unforeseen problem to deal with, it activates a response designed to get you through the situation. The hypothalamus and pituitary gland in the brain send a signal to the adrenal glands, and the result is the release of cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone that allows energy to be generated when you need it.

Think of it as a dimmer switch. As the demand increases, the signal goes up. Once the demand has passed, the feedback mechanisms then work to bring the response back down again. The problem comes in when the demands keep going up, and there’s no opportunity to recover.

You may become irritable, have difficulty concentrating, and find it hard to switch off at the end of the day. All of those things can have a number of causes and don’t necessarily point to cortisol levels being out of sync. They may, however, be a cue that it’s time to look at your lifestyle and consider what might help you feel better supported.

This is one of the reasons functional nutrition has been so popular. It looks at the potential for certain foods and ingredients to have a role in health beyond just providing nutrition. There’s research currently being done into the potential of botanicals such as saffron and ashwagandha and their effect on mood and stress.

The key word is potential. Research can be very informative, but the results are dependent on the particular ingredient, extract, dose, and population being studied. Understanding those details helps you look beyond broad wellness promises and make more informed decisions.

Looking Beyond the Wellness Hype

Standing in a wellness aisle, it’s very easy to be attracted by the bright packaging and confident claims. One product might promise you more energy, better balance, and a calmer mind, but how do you know what you’re actually getting?

For Suraj Meharwade, founder of FIHI Nutrition, that was the fundamental question. With a master’s degree in food science and experience formulating hundreds of health products, he understood the importance of ingredient quality and formulation. His upbringing also introduced him to traditional herbal preparations, including chyawanprash.

As the day-to-day stress and pressures of work started to take a toll on his health, he became very interested in the relationship between traditional ingredients and modern science. He also became very skeptical of products that used a list of ingredients that were essentially meaningless, with quantities not stated and unnecessary fillers.

FIHI Nutrition grew out of that interest in making functional nutrition both enjoyable and transparent. The brand started with superfood chocolates and moved on to functional latte blends with the researched botanicals.

Its philosophy is rooted in a very practical question: what does the research show, and how can an ingredient become part of a useful daily habit?

Finding a Daytime Ritual with Saffron

If you are interested in exploring functional nutrition, you don’t have to start with a cabinet full of supplements. You could start with something you’re already familiar with: the drink you make when you need a moment to yourself.

FIHI Nutrition’s Super Happy Saffron Vanilla Latte takes that concept to the next level. Each serving contains 30mg of Affron® saffron stigma extract, coconut milk powder, vanilla extract, and monk fruit extract. It’s a creamy, lightly sweetened, caffeine-free alternative to a regular latte.

Saffron has a long-standing place in the kitchen. There has also been some research into concentrated saffron extracts and their potential effect on mood. In a 4-week randomized clinical trial of 128 adults who reported low mood, but without a diagnosis of depression, 28mg of Affron® per day resulted in improved mood scores compared to placebo. This is encouraging evidence for that particular extract, though by no means guarantees that everyone will get the same result. Read study here

What makes the blend so relevant to your day-to-day life is that it takes a well-researched ingredient and puts it into a format you’re already familiar with. It can be made with warm milk or your preferred plant- based milk, like oat milk, for instance. If you enjoy your regular coffee, you could also combine it with the blend while bearing in mind the coffee will add caffeine.

The point isn’t that one cup is going to change your mood. It’s that it creates a tiny moment of pleasure which encourages you to stop and put a little more thoughtful intention into how you look after yourself.

Making Room for an Evening Wind-Down

Your needs may be very different by the end of the day than they were at the start. Work may be over, but your mind will still be going over all the things you have left unfinished. You may have time to rest, and yet it can take a while to get out of problem-solving mode. An evening ritual can help to draw the line between activity and rest. Switching off the lights, putting your phone to one side, or simply preparing a warm drink could make the transition into the more relaxed part of the evening smoother.

FIHI Nutrition’s Super Relax Ashwagandha Reishi Coconut Latte is made for those very moments. Each serving has 600 mg of KSM-66® ashwagandha root extract and 1,000 mg of organic reishi mushroom extract. The vanilla coconut flavor is a worthy nutritional addition when blended with hot milk or a plant-based variety.

Ashwagandha is an adaptogen and has been studied for its potential to help the body deal with stress. In a 60-day randomized trial of 64 adults with chronic stress, KSM-66® at 300mg twice daily resulted in a significant reduction in perceived stress and serum cortisol levels compared to placebo. Read study here

The drink is just one part of the experience. Taking the time to relax, maintaining a good sleep pattern, and looking at the underlying causes of your stress are all important.

Making Everyday Wellness More Sustainable

The ideal wellness routine is one that you can sustain. Look at your current habits and see where a small adjustment could be made. You might find that having a latte whilst you’re on a break from work is a better use of your time than carrying on with another task, or that an evening drink could be the cue to switch off your laptop and begin to wind down. They won’t take any of the pressure off your life, but they can help you create some deliberate space for yourself.

You can’t always control how demanding tomorrow is going to be. What you can do is be more conscious of the choices you make today. That may start with a better understanding of what you’re putting into your body and why.

When you’ve finally shut the laptop, walked into the kitchen, and realized your mind is still spinning on tomorrow’s to-do list, you might be tempted to stop before reaching for your usual drink. You haven’t finished everything; you’ve got plenty to do, but you can still make a little space for yourself.