Cheese is 'Addictive'

If you are one of those people who believes that some type of cheese must be present in all your meals and think that instead of all meals and snacks, you can eat pizza with plenty of cheese, now you can confidently tell your acquaintances that it's not your fault and you are 'addicted' to cheese! According to the Daily Telegraph, recent research published in the National Library of Medicine in the U.S. indicates that some foods are addictive due to their processing and preparation methods. The more processed and fatty a food is, the more likely it is to be addictive. In this study conducted among Yale University students in the U.S., participants were asked to name foods they eat 'uncontrollably.' When pizza was identified as the number one item on this list, no one was surprised. We all know how hard it is to eat just one slice of pizza, and even if we know we are not hungry, we still reach for a second slice. The results of this research indicate that cheese is addictive due to the presence of a protein called casein, which is found in all dairy products. During the digestion of cheese, this protein releases a narcotic substance called casomorphin, which affects dopamine receptors in the brain. Given the prevalence of obesity, some nutritionists have gone so far as to call cheese the 'crack' of foods. Although the amount of casein in milk is not high, it takes about twenty kilograms of milk to make one kilogram of cheese, meaning there is a high concentration of casein in cheese. The Los Angeles Times also writes about this research, noting that due to the prevalence of obesity, some nutritionists have labeled cheese as the 'crack' of foods, but it is still unclear how much cheese (and dairy products in general) is beneficial for the body and at what point consumption becomes harmful. Previous studies have shown that very high-protein diets are not only not beneficial for the body but can also have harmful effects comparable to smoking in the long term.