Haunted by that research suggesting that your friends make you fat (and not because of their killer cheesecake)? If you missed it, here's the recap: The research showed that you're more likely to become obese if your friends do.

Does that mean doom and group discounts on caftans? Hardly. One way to help change your odds might be to have your friends over for tea. Two types of tea in particular may have you shopping together for smaller clothes (provided you swap the crumpets and clotted cream for perfectly tender-crisp veggies):

White tea: Made from the buds and early leaves of the same plants used to make green and black teas, white tea may have special fat-thwarting powers. Your body's fat cells increase or decrease in size, according to your weight. And in a lab study, human fat cells treated with white tea extract accumulated significantly less fat. The tea stimulated the breakdown of fat from mature cells.

Green tea: Green tea speeds up your calorie-burning process. And it seems to turn up your calorie torches after exercise. In fact, overweight people who worked out for 12 weeks lost more belly fat when they drank green tea every day. Compounds called catechins may be the heroes: They may act on enzymes that influence the way your body burns fat and calories. So make an afternoon of it, and have your friends over for a walk before you break out the tea set.