"If you use a mobile phone with a camera, thank Tessera (NASDAQ: TSRA)," says Mike Cintolo in the Cabot Top Ten Report. "When it comes to miniaturization, Tessera is the go-to company."

"Tessera is one of the companies that drove the price of camera components down by miniaturizing them and combining them on a single chip.

"You'll find its technology in MP3 players, video games, wireless phones, computers and numerous other products where companies are forever working to design products smaller and manufacture them more cheaply.

In a difficult economic environment, it is often wise for investors to consider stocks in more defensive and relatively recession-resistant sectors. And one such area is food and beverage stocks.

As the long-standing market maxim goes, consumers can pull back on spending for vacations, remodeling, and new cars, but they still need to eat and drink.

In that light, I turned to nine leading newsletter advisors who serve up their current favorite ideas in the food and beverage sector:

"Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) makes the Genome Analyzer, which is the workhorse of the genetic medicine revolution," says growth expert Mike Cintolo in The Cabot Top Ten Report.

"The Illumina Genome Analyzer is used by genomic research centers, academic institutions, agriculture and livestock companies, pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations and biotechnology companies all over the world.

"In the fourth quarter of 2008, for example, the company launched the In? nium HD HumanCytoSNP-12 BeadChip, a 12 sample BeadChip priced as low as $125 per sample that enables researchers to analyze nearly 300,000 genetic markers per sample.

Health care has long been considered a recession-resistant business. Given the current economic challenges, it's little surprise that in our survey of favorite stocks for the coming year, a number of leading advisors turned to this classic defensive sector.

In this year's Top Stock Picks from 75 advisors report, we found an intriguing group of medical-related stocks, from speculation in emerging biotech to well-established pharmaceutical firms, and from medical products makers to medical services firms focused on increasing health care efficiency and early disease detection.

Mike Cintolo, editor of The Cabot Market Letter, thinks Myriad Genetics (NASDAQ: MYGN) could be a "big winner in 2009," The company is a lead in the new field of cancer predisposition testing. For Mike's full report, read Top Stock Picks '09: Myriad Genetics.

Chuck Carlson, editor of The DRIP Investor, sees both quality and potential in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY). For Chuck's full report, read Top Stock Picks '09: Bristol-Myers Squibb.