There has been a flurry in the media lately about how a new scientific study proves once and for all that cheese is addictive. As it turns out, if you just cannot stop eating cheese, there’s a reason for that—cheese is just like a drug, the stories say.
The Truth About The Food Addiction Study
By Kathy Bernier
While the news may or may not be true, the report cited by the “cheese is addictive” stories doesn’t really support the claim. In fact, a click on the link and a quick scan of the actual study reveals only a few off-hand mentions of cheese at all. Here’s the link I found on one of the cheese stories: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25692302
Which foods may be addictive? The roles of processing, fat content, and glycemic load. – PubMed – NCBI
PLoS One. 2015 Feb 18;10(2):e0117959. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117959. eCollection 2015. Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
The idea of cheese being addictive makes for a fun read. And why not—who doesn’t want to be handed some kind of justification for the reason we can’t stop eating cheese? The real scientific report, however, talks about something we are not quite so eager to embrace: processed food. The idea of being a slave to processed food is just not as sexy as being devoted to cheese. We’d all rather confess a fondness for a classy offering of brie on crostini or even an earthy cheese-and-pasta casserole, than admit to a need for store-bought cake and soda. However, the truth is that processed food appeals to humans. And the more highly processed the food is, the more likely it is to be addicting.Speaking of Cheese… Who Can You Resist a Homemade Mac?
The study, which was actually broken down into two separate parts, asked participants to rate their own addiction to thirty-five different foods, and then investigated the connection between specific kinds of foods and addiction levels.In a nutshell, the foods that were higher in fat and had a higher glycemic load—roughly defined as being full of carbohydrates that are rapidly absorbed into the human body—were shown to be more addictive.Food addiction, defined by the study authors as being “characterized by symptoms such as loss of control over consumption, continued use despite negative consequences, and an inability to cut down despite the desire to do so,” may be contributing to the rising rate of obesity in Americans. Foods in their natural state are less likely to elicit addictive reactions. Take grapes, for example. I have never met anyone who couldn’t stop eating grapes. But grapes that have been processed into wine can be a whole different story. Sugar, too. Even though the actual amount of sugar in a banana and a piece of milk chocolate might be similar, the candy has a higher likelihood of addiction.It’s not just humans who feel this way about processed food. The study gives examples of past animal studies in which rats engage in binge-eating junk food and keep eating it even when doing so gives them a foot shock, and another where removing sugar from rats’ diets caused them to show symptoms similar to drug withdrawals.When you think about it, the study doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already suspect. Surely the idea of eating one too many jelly donuts is more of a threat than binge-eating steamed broccoli or carrot sticks. And while roast potatoes are delicious, they won’t reach out and grab someone right by the taste buds the way a bag of potato chips will.It’s all good news, too. The foods that we were already taking care to enjoy only in moderation turn out to be the very choices we should indeed limit. And the foods we know we should eat more of, are in fact the ones we can consume with wild abandon. And cheese? Go ahead and eat all you want. Because, at least according to this particular study, you won’t have to worry about becoming unable to live without it.
