Wedges of cheddar cheese Getty
If you are one of those who can’t get enough cheese, there might just be a valid scientific explanation as to why.
University of Michigan researchers have learned that cheese actually contains a chemical which is found in addictive drugs.
Cheese contains casein making it a craving food which triggers the brain’s opioid receptors. This produces a feeling of euphoria, similar to hard drug addictiveness.
It started with a questionnaire where 500 students were asked to identify food cravings. Pizza topped the list as the most addictive food of all.
All the foods containing cheese were ranked the highest on the addiction scale.
While milk on it’s own doesn’t contain a lot of casein, cheese requires about 10 pounds of milk so the casein level is really jacked up.
So what you get is a super dose chemical which provides a stronger hit of addictive casein. So a cheese sandwich would be like crack cocaine compared to your bowl of milk filled cereal which would only compare to say a cup of coffee.
Here’s the take-away that study author Erica Schulte made:
“If properties of some foods are associated with addictive eating for some people, this may impact nutrition guidelines, as well as public policy initiatives such as marketing these foods to children.”
And another take-away from co-author Nicole Avena:
“This is a first step towards identifying specific foods, and properties of foods, which can trigger this addictive response.
“This could help change the way we approach obesity treatment. It may not be a simple matter of ‘cutting back’ on certain foods, but rather, adopting methods used to curtail smoking, drinking and drug use.”
Recently it was revealed that an average person actually consumes around 35 pounds of cheese a year! This study may just explain the reasoning behind that number!
