Gouda god! CHEESE is every bit as addictive as drugs, says science

For the discerning cheese fiend, one slice is just never enough. 

Yes, you know you have a problem when even an entire board laden down heavy with a half a dozen varieties can be deliciously devoured in less than an hour. 

However, rather than bemoaning a lack of self control, it seems that genetics have a LOT to answer for when it comes to cheese cravings. Indeed, the food can be like a hard drug to some people.

In short, it's not you it's science.

Fancy-pants researchers at the University Of Cambridge have found that around one in 1,000 people have a troublesome gene called MC4R. This means they have a predisposition for high-fat foods (read: donuts, pizza, butter and CHEESE!), but less of a preference for high-sugar foods. 

The scientists laid-out a chicken korma buffet followed by an Eton Mess dessert for 54 volunteers of various size. 

And while there was no real difference in the amount eaten between the individuals, the 14 people with MC4R unknowingly ate a significantly higher proportion of the high-fat korma, although they liked the high-sugar option less than their counterparts.

Professor Sadaf Farooqi, neuroscientist and co-author of the study, said in response: “People couldn’t tell the food apart and that was the key thing. They [participants with the MC4R defect] still ate a lot more of the high fat and a lot less of the high sugar which suggests that the brain has ways of picking up levels of nutrients.”

Past experiments with mice have found similar links between the MC4R gene defect and fatty food preference but the Cambridge research is the first human study of its kind.