Are you a cheese junky?
Just when you thought you couldn’t really be addicted to cheese, a study comes along shattering that belief and claiming that the dairy product is as addictive as narcotics.
According to the study published in U.S. National Library of Medicine, a cheese addiction is real and comparable to a drug addiction.
About 120 participants completed a Yale Food Addiction Scale, which measures food addictions and whether or not someone has one.
The food that came out on top of the survey was pizza, which obviously contains cheese and cheese contains a very addictive ingredient called casein. When digested the casein releases opiates called casomorphins.
"[Casomorphins] really play with the dopamine receptors and trigger that addictive element," registered dietitian Cameron Wells told Mic.com.
The study concluded that “not all foods are equally implicated in addictive-like eating behavior and highly processed foods, which may share characteristics with drugs of abuse appear to be particularly associated with 'food addiction.'”
Those who participated in the study were selected from the University of Michigan Introductory Psychology Subject Pool.