I knew it. Despite years of protestations from family members, friends and loved ones who have tried (in vain) to wrestle cheese away from me at countless dinner parties, as I continue to eat more than my fair share of the dairy delicious-ness, the facts are now cast in stone. Cheese is crack!
Well, kind of. The addictive element that comes with the gooey yellow stuff is certainly being backed up by researchers, who claim that the “casein derived, morphine-like compounds” can have a similar effect. So, if you can’t put down the Danish Blue, and just have to finish that fromage once you start, it’s not your fault.
According to Dr Neal Barnard, when you crack open the Camembert, your brain reacts similarly to how it would with any addictive substance, because the aforementioned protein, casein, is difficult for your body to break down. Instead of simply digesting them, the beads do not entirely separate. The result? Shorter strings of the amino acids attach to the opiate receptors in your brain, affecting it in a manner not dissimilar to how heroine or morphine interacts with your mind.
Yes, yes, in plain English please, I hear you cry. Well, in a nutshell, cheese is addictive and we want more. However, the same can be said of other highly processed foods, and not uniquely cheese. The study found that they had some of the same properties as abusive drugs, namely a very rapid absorption rate.
That means that, try as we might, it’s unlikely that our love affair with mac ‘n’ cheese will ever give way to an addiction to fruits and vegetables. And while this media frenzy has us calling our cheesy counterparts labelled, “dairy crack”, it’s still not OK to go shooting or snorting strong Cheddar.
Just don’t be surprised if your family calls an intervention the next time you suggest a cheese and wine night…