What's the official drink of Halloween? Milk

We were thinking a vile green punch with gummy eyeballs floating in it, or perhaps something blood red. But the Official Drink of Halloween turns out to be chocolate milk.

At least that's according to the nation's milk producers, who point out milk's role in building strong skeletons.

Low-fat chocolate milk is nutritious - each 8-ounce serving has 300 mg of calcium - and it's got the fun factor going for it, if not the fear factor. Treat your kids to a low-fat chocolate smoothie before they head out to trick or treat, and they won't be tempted to gobble so much candy.

Whymilk.com offers other tips for a healthy Halloween and plenty of chocolate milk recipes, such as Minty Witches' Brew and Goblin-Good Rice Pudding.

No free smoke

It turns out the occasional cigarette has a lasting negative impact on your arteries - a finding that surprised even researchers.

"Most people know that if they have a cigarette or two over the weekend that it's not good for their arteries," said Kevin McCully, a University of Georgia researcher, "but what they may not be aware of - and our study shows - is that the decrease in function persists into the next week, if not longer."

For the study, researchers recruited healthy college students - half nonsmokers and half occasional smokers who had not smoked for at least two days. The arteries of occasional smokers were 36 percent less responsive to changes in blood flow than the nonsmokers'. This reduction in responsiveness is an early sign of the arterial damage that often predicts cardiovascular disease.

More studies are needed to tell if occasional smoking leads to longer-lasting damage, researchers said, but it's clearly not harmless.

Organic matters

Is organic food really worth the extra cost? In some cases, yes. A new analysis of 100 studies found the average levels of nearly a dozen nutrients are 25 percent higher in organic produce, Prevention magazine reports.

But you don't have to break the family food budget to get the benefits. For starters, skip the organic "junk food" - pricey organic soda or, we're not kidding, organic cotton candy.

Instead, spend your money on the fruits and veggies most likely to have pesticide residue. The "dirty dozen": peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, imported grapes, spinach, lettuce and potatoes.

Organic milk offers good nutritional bang for the buck. Studies show organic milk has 50 percent more vitamin E, 75 percent more beta-carotene and 70 percent more omega-3 fatty acids, Prevention reports.

Other tips: Buy organic grains in bulk. Look online for printable coupons from organic dairy companies, such as Stonyfield Farm (stonyfield.com). And select store-brand organics when you have a choice.