October 21/Sydney, Australia/Indo-Asian News Service -- Five helpings of dairy products every day, instead of the three now recommended, can help keep heart disease and diabetes at bay.

New research has shown that a higher intake of dairy products on a reduced-calorie diet can help fight obesity, besides cutting down risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

As part of her doctoral research, Wendy Chan She Ping Delfos from Curtin's School of Public Health (CSPH) compared three serves of dairy with five serves of dairy within a reduced-calorie diet prescribed for obese participants over a 12-week weight-loss trial.

Participants who consumed five daily dairy serves were found to have higher mean levels of weight loss; higher mean levels of fat mass loss; greater drop of systolic blood pressure; and greater total percentage abdominal fat loss, according to a CSPH release.

"Many people commonly believe that when trying to lose weight dairy products are key foods that they have to cut out of their diet as they are high in fat," Chan Delfos said.

'Participants who had five serves of dairy and engaged in resistance exercise had similar health benefits to participants consuming five serves of dairy only,' she said.

From the October 26, 2009, Prepared Foods E-dition