Hello and welcome to the nutrition diva podcast I'm your host

Monica Reinagle and in the show I try to help you navigate the often confusing world of nutrition science and food advice.

Whether you're trying to make sense of the latest health trend or just looking for practical tips to improve your diet, you're in the right place.

Today's show was prompted by Bob, who sent in some great questions about how our bodies

respond to the nutrients in foods versus those in supplements.

For example, do foods contain special compounds that help the body make better use of the nutrients

it contains?

Are the nutrients that you get in your daily multivitamin

sticking around in your body long enough to be useful

later in the day?

There's a lot to say here, so let's dig right in. First we need to talk about something referred

to as the food matrix. This term refers to the physical and chemical

environment within which nutrients in foods are found. So it includes the

structure of the food itself, the fibers, the cell walls, and other natural

compounds that may interact with the nutrients and all of this significantly influences how nutrients are absorbed and utilized by our bodies.

Food processing generally alters the food matrix and this too can affect how our bodies use those same nutrients.

And when I say processing, I'm including everything from throwing fruits and vegetables into a blender to make a smoothie, to grinding grains into flour, to pressing olives to make oil or any of the other ways that foods are processed, both in our own kitchens, as well as in food manufacturing plants.

When we change the food matrix, even if it doesn't affect the amount of nutrients in the food,

it may still alter the availability or the function of those nutrients.

And these changes are not uniformly beneficial or harmful.

It's a mix of both.

For example, blending fruits in a smoothie can break down the cell walls and that can allow us to absorb more of

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