Is Cheese Actually Addictive? Here’s a Top Dietitian’s Take.

YOU MAY HAVE heard that dairy certain foods, including cheese, are “as addictive as crack” or have effects of a “drug.” This is one of those dietary myths that has been around for a while, but social media (as it tends to do) has dug up and spread around.

In 2015, PLOS One published a study that assessed if certain foods lead to “addictive-like eating behaviours.” In the study, 120 people were given a list of 35 foods. Subjects were told to rank each food according to how out-of-control they felt when eating them—and whether they had trouble cutting down on those foods.

The study concluded that the common denominators in the most problematic foods appeared to be level of processing, fat content, and glycemic load. Cheese was number 16 on the list, preceded by foods such as french fries, chocolate, and chips. Still, the media ran with the “cheese is addictive” headlines.

The myth that cheese is addictive was further pushed into the public with The Cheese Trap by Neal Barnard M.D., a 2017 book in which Dr. Barnard called cheese “a dangerous addiction.” Dr. Barnard has long theorized that casomorphins—opiate peptides created when dairy protein casein is broken down—act like drug opiates in the human body.

In 2020, Barnard gave an interview in the Vegetarian Times, calling cheese ‘dairy crack,’ and comparing it to heroin and morphine. He then gave his recommendations: to treat cheese like a “drug you’re hooked on:”

If you’re suspicious that this narrative might be a little over-the-top, I’m with you. Barnard, after all, is the founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a vegan advocacy organization.

It’s interesting that Barnard never mentions gliadorphins, which are also opiate peptides found in grains that research has shown to have the same effect and casomorphins.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

How do casomorphins work?

When we consume cheese—or any dairy food—the casomorphins created from dairy’s casein protein travel to the brain, where they attach to opiate receptors and cause the release of dopamine. Dopamine makes us feel good, and it’s not only cheese and drugs that elicit this effect. Shopping, laughing, sex, smelling warm cookies—pretty much anything we enjoy in life causes a dopamine rush. That doesn’t automatically mean that you’re going to become addicted to smelling cookies. Or eating cheese.

Cheese is delicious. It’s a crave-able combination of fat and salt, with a tempting mouthfeel. It oozes and stretches and is pleasurable to eat. But it’s a huge leap to make the assertion that a love for cheese is comparable to an actual addiction—or that cheese itself is addictive.

Casomorphins are in no way as potent as opioids. Unlike with street drugs, we don’t see people selling everything they own to buy cheese, nor do we have documented cases of cheese dependency or withdrawal.

Is Cheese Addictive?

Whether something is addictive can be determined by a specific set of criteria. According to the NIH, true addiction involves losing control of our actions, and seeking out the substance of addiction no matter what the cost. Addiction can actually cause changes in the brain that lead to the inability to stop.

There is still no scientific consensus on whether food addiction exists at all.

It’s easy to jump to blaming our cheese cravings on an “addiction,” but this has never been proven. That hasn’t stopped the media from sensationalizing this claim.

Lastly, comparing any food to crack or other hard drugs minimizes the experience and struggle of people who suffer from addiction and their loved ones.

The sensationalizing of weak or non-existent science around the alleged dangers of specific foods is becoming normalized, especially in traditional and social media. Remember that a healthy diet contains a wide variety of foods, and this has always been the case.

And I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.