Cheese Is ‘As Addictive As Drugs’, Scientists Warn

Is your cheddar habit out of control? Have you found yourself pawning the family silver to pay for a few more triangles of Dairylea?

You’re not alone.

A new University of Michigan study found that cheese - in particular, processed stuff - is like the ‘drugs’ of the food world.

Students rated different foods for how addictive they were, and the team mapped this against their fat and carbohydrate content.

They found that cheese is the crack cocaine of the food world.

The researchers write, ‘not all foods are equally implicated in addictive-like eating behavior, and highly processed foods, which may share characteristics with drugs of abuse (e.g. high dose, rapid rate of absorption) appear to be particularly associated with "food addiction.".

Study author Erica Shulte said, ‘Fat seemed to be equally predictive of problematic eating for everyone, regardless of whether they experience symptoms of 'food addiction’.

The researchers blamed ‘casein’ - a chemical found in cheese - which triggers centres associated with reward and addiction in the brain.