Recent literature highlights that dairy products can be associated with neutral to beneficial cardiometabolic effects despite their saturated fat content. Beyond fatty acid profile, milk fat globules are a source of polar lipids as major components of the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM), with a specific composition including about 25% of sphingomyelin. We will review recent advances on the possible benefits of milk polar lipids on different aspects of cardiometabolic health, including favourable effects on lipid digestion and absorption, reduction of lipid markers of cardiovascular risk and potential benefits on metabolic inflammation via modulations of the gut microbiota and gut barrier. The body of evidence in several in vivo studies and a few recent human studies is altogether consistent with significant impacts of the milk polar lipids and/or the whole MFGM, and open perspectives on the metabolic importance of dairy sphingolipids. Altogether, this paves the way for the wider use of specific milk polar lipid-rich dairy products such as buttermilk, and for better taking into account milk fat globules and polar lipids as an important componant of the « dairy matrix effect » in human nutrition.