Healthcare professionals

Introducing the Dairy Matrix

Over the years science has discovered a lot about how nutrients affect our health, however, the reality is we don’t eat a plate of nutrients, we eat whole foods.

In recent years nutrition science has shifted focus from nutrients to researching the effect whole foods have on health.

And what they have found has sometimes been surprising.

For many foods the nutrient content does not necessarily predict its health properties.

Foods are made up of nutrients that are housed in complex physical structures or matrices. We are discovering the way nutrients interact within the food’s physical matrix can determine its health properties.

Scientists are calling this the 'food matrix effect’.

This is especially true for the dairy food matrix. Scientists and nutritionists are recognising that the effects of dairy foods extend beyond the benefits of the individual nutrients they contain.

Milk, cheese and yoghurt naturally contain a rich package of nutrients. The food matrix of milk cheese and yoghurt are each unique and they each have a health story to tell.