Milk, dairy products, nutrition and health

Scientific progress in nutrition, medical and food sciences is having an in creasingly profound impact on consumer's approach to nutrition. There is a growing awareness that many chronic diseases are caused by unbalanced diet. In addition to disease prevention, the role of food as an agent for improv ing health has been proposed and a new class of food, so called functional food, has come into being. This term is used to indicate a food that contai ns some health-promoting components and not only traditional nutrients. Fro m this point of view we could argue that milk and many dairy products belon g to the family of functional food replete with bioactive peptides, probiot ic bacteria, antioxidants, highly absorbable calcium, conjugated linoleic a cid and other biologically active components. Although evaluation of the be nefits or risks of foods normally does not entail the same extensive examin ation as that required of drugs, this does not negate the need for sound sc ientific information before making conclusions and recommendations to the c onsumers. This paper reviews and discusses some of the latest findings rega rding the role of milk and dairy products in nutrition and health.