Yesterday, the new iOS software update allowed iPhone owners and emoji enthusiasts to express their love of all things burrito, unicorn and cheese.
There was a lot of cheese loving happening. People were more excited about the cheese than the Bank Holiday weekend it seemed.
Now, we feel like there could be an explanation behind this worldwide cheese addiction.
A study recently published in the US National Library of Medicine has examined why certain foods are more addictive than others.
Surprisingly (or perhaps not if you’re a cheese freak), cheese was found to have the same addictive properties as many drugs.
According to the LA Times: “certain foods are addictive because of the way they are processed. The more processed and fatty the food, the more it was associated with addictive eating behaviours.”
An ingredient in cheese called casein makes cheese particularly addictive because of the way this is broken down into an opiate called casomorphin during digestion. The property has led Dr. Neal Barnard, founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, to call cheese “dairy crack.”
This is not a joke by the way, your cheese addiction is now validated. Thank you science!
"[Casomorphins] really play with the dopamine receptors and trigger that addictive element," registered dietitian Cameron Wells told Mic.
Pizza was the food which was crowned the most addictive, which is thought to be as a result of the cheese topping.
So, now that we know there’s an actually explanation behind our love of cheesy food, who wants to try the Pizza Diet?
