Helping your teen to lose weight may be as easy as restocking the drinks in your refrigerator, according to researchers at Children's Hospital Boston. A six-month study reported in a recent issue of Pediatrics found that changing just one adolescent behavior - that of drinking sugar-sweetened beverages - resulted in an average of 1 pound of weight lost per month.

Because kids drink as many as half of their beverages at home, the researchers asked one group of teens to choose from a variety of non-caloric drinks such as soda, lemonade and iced tea, and then delivered these drinks free to the household. A second group of teens participating in the study were not asked to change their beverage consumption behavior. At the end of the six months, those who had changed their consumption of high calorie beverages lost weight, while those who had not changed their beverage intake patterns did not.

While substituting an unsweetened ice tea for a sugar sweetened tea may only result in a small monthly weight loss, it is evidence that helping your teen to take little steps in changing eating behaviors can pay off.