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Morphine producer (AP Photo/Keystone, Dominic Favre)
I used to joke that I am a cheesoholic but I’m not laughing anymore. Apparently, it’s true.
According to Dr. Neal Barnard, an associate professor of medicine at the George Washington School of Medicine and founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, sugar, chocolate and cheese all contain addictive opiates that get us hooked. All three of my major food groups!
Sugar and chocolate, I can understand, but how did my fondness for fondue become a full-blown addiction? Dr. Barnard explains that in 1981 researchers at Wellcome Research Laboratories found traces of morphine in cow’s milk. Further research found that the cows were not shooting up but that they actually produce morphine, codeine and other opiates in their livers.
It turns out that milk contains a protein called casein that releases various opiates called casomorphins during digestion. Before you get too excited, one type of those casomorphins has about one-tenth the pain-killing power of morphine.
In the production of cheese, the casein protein is concentrated, so it’s much higher than in milk. That's why Dr. Barnard refers to cheese as “dairy crack.”
It gets worse. Cheese also contains an amphetamine-like chemical called phenylethylamine also found in chocolate. And it seems that cheese cravings, like opiate cravings, respond to the drug naloxone. 
Not surprisingly, as with other drugs, there are vast organizations making a concerted effort to get us hooked and keep us hooked. We call them the federal government and Big Cheese.
Dr. Barnard points to the USDA Report to Congress on the Dairy Promotion Programs for the year 2000 which boasts that through government sponsored programs, the cheese industry encouraged fast food restaurants to increase the amount of cheese in their offerings and specifically targeted the poor cheese addicts, whom they call the “cravers,” making it a goal of their advertising to “trigger the cheese craving.” Currently, as part of the program, Domino’s Pizza is launching a line of 6 new pizzas using 40% more cheese.
Thanks in part to these government sponsored programs, average cheese consumption in the U.S. nearly tripled between 1975 and 2003 from 11 pounds per year to 31 pounds per year and that number is expected to rise to 37 pounds by 2017. In the meantime, the average American has gained 13 pounds since 1990.
How does a cheese addict defend against the cravings and the pushers? No, you don’t need to go through rehab or take naloxone. Dr. Barnard, in his book, Breaking the Food Seduction, suggests a three week diet limited to whole grains, vegetables, legumes and fruit, together with vitamins B12 and D. He counsels going cold turkey (hold the swiss) for just 3 weeks and you’ll find the cheese cravings will subside.
Let me know how you do.
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Comments
From one fromage-o-file to another, I find this information disturbing. Is this limited to domestic, processed cheeses?
It can't be limited to domestic cheeses if the cows themselves are producing it, Trudy. It doesn't sound like it should be limited to processed cheese, either, though maybe the levels alter with different methods.
Neal Barnard is a psychiatrist, not a nutrition expert. And he's also a 20-year animal rights activist. No wonder he hates cheese. You can't be serious about believing him....
This is why I eat goat cheese.
The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine are a front for the vegan extremists of PETA. They should never be considered a source of independent scientific information.
The levels of casomorphins obtained from eating dairy foods are absolutely minute and far too low to have any significant effect. Eating wheat is far more likely to cause elevated levels of opiods.
Meat and dairy taste good. So I label any scientist with information such as this a "PeTA extremist". It makes me feel better about my unhealthy, cruel, environmentally-destructive selfish behavior.
Um, I am totally addicted to cheese. I do crave it more than chocolate or anything else. I also found that the cravings subsided after I went a long time without cheese. It IS an addictive substance to many. And really, Food Scientist, opioids in wheat? Did the wheat's liver produce some? Seriously.
Over the past year I have given up drinking, smoking, caffeine, and dairy (I became lactose intolerant). Giving up cheese has been the hardest. Even more so than smoking and drinking.
Clever, M.J. You're the first meat eater with such helpful and unique comments. Very funny and insightful.
i have loved cheese since i was a kid, from gouda to monterey jack cheese i love cheese and i cant stop but want to! for my health!
Consider moderation in all things: keeps the fat off and our lives balanced. Breaking food addictions of any type requires self control and alternative activities. Having lived in Wisconsin with a husband who brought home huge amounts of cheese from work, we have dealt with the dark side of the yummy stuff. It is not a drug. It is possible to move beyond addiction to it. I have done it.
cheese is addictive? so what? eat more, get fat, die young. better to be happy than to live a long, miserable cheese-less life.
There's more to the story...
There are currently 6 known genetic variations of cow's milk, numbered A1 through A6 (based on the order of discovery). The most common form of milk consumed in this country is A1, a genetic variation that occurred about 5,000 years ago, in Europe. That change introduced a variation on a protein that does change the characteristic of milk to behave like an opiate. Milk from Holstein cows carries this variant. A2 milk, which is probably the more "normal" milk, is found in Jersey cow, Ayershire cow, and other non-mass produced bovine milks. Cheese is NOT affected as much by this variation because of the process of producing the cheese eliminates or traps the particular protein. There's an interesting book on the subject titled "The Devil in the Milk" which is worth the read.
This is only a fraction of the story on those addictive properties. The casein in cheese does break down into opioid peptides (as in opium) yet I believe that the cheese addiction is a good one to have, that is if it is an addiction to what I will call "real" cheese, not the processed type that fast food restaurants serve. In addition to many other wonderful benefits those opioid peptides help control food intake - one of several ways that cheese can help you lose weight. Fats found in cheese help to curb our appetites by triggering the release of a hormone which causes fullness. According to a 2005 study from the Harvard School of Public Health those fats slow the release of sugar into our bloodstream, which reduces the amount that can be stored as fat. Cheese also contains an important fatty acid, CLA, which in many studies has been shown to reduce weight, and in others to be a cancer fighter, among other benefits. It should be noted that not all cheeses have high amounts of CLA but those derived from milk of grass-fed animals have more of it, ewe milk cheeses have more, younger more than older cheeses. Several amino acids found in high concentration in cheese help us metabolize the fats and proteins we eat, including those in the cheese itself. Some of those amino acids help reduce our appetite - another way that cheese can help us lose weight. Cheese is a near-perfect and near-complete food that continues to enjoy a stellar track record for food safety.
I actually quite cheese for Lent this past year (meaning I quit cheese cold turkey for 47 days straight), and I went completely insane. I was a nervous wreck, substituting foods with cheese to even worse foods, such as french fries or hamburgers. Fish was too expensive for me, and since I am a student on the go everyday, its hard to find quick and cheap accessible food that would fill me up for a good amount of hours and that didn't require too much time to make, or money (I live in NYC, so food costs are crazy, a basic salad alone can run up to 10 or 11 dollars, compared to a bagel with cream cheese for a $1.50). Everything tasted bland and lifeless without cheese. I would cry on some days, because I couldn't handle the amount of anxiety quitting cheese had caused. I had done the research before making this decision, and I was prepared to handle the consequences, such as acne and slight anxiety for only 2 to 3 weeks tops. Instead, as time went on, the cravings got worse. I had gained 10-15 lbs. during this 47 day period of quitting cheese, the expected acne flared up more so over time, and I felt dizzy, grumpy, depressed, and angry when I couldn't eat cheese during Lent. I thought I was going to lose weight, and instead, I gained weight, and quitting cheese took a tremendous toll on my health overall. It was such a great relief to go back, but I realized I had a real addiction that was much more serious than I ever thought.
My daughter is lactose intolerant so I started trying cheese. My husband I still ate regular cheese which I thought was torturous to her so eventually I quit buying it. My sinuses are thanking me. If we go to a Mexican restaurant and I get something with cheese I can feel the jonesing coming on after that. We tend to forget that food is a drug and the illnesses we see today and weight gain are generally a sign of abusing it.
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