The consumption of cheese in Mexico is very high, due to the great variety of national cheeses -around 20- such as panela, añejo, Oaxaca, Cotija, asadero, Chihuahua, or adobera.
It is also a must in typical Mexican food, such as quesadillas, sopes, tostadas, or enchiladas. Mexicans consume more than 400 thousand tons of cheese, that is, between 2.1 and 6 kilograms of cheese per year, according to a study by The Food Tech.
Why do we like cheese so much? Because of its taste or because it is addictive?
If you are one of those who add cheese to everything, the experts at Houston Methodist Hospital have interesting answers.
For many, it seems as if this delicacy could be addictive. Cheese makes everything tastier, even things that already taste good.
But “addiction” is a serious word, which should not be taken lightly. The American Society of Addiction Medication defines it as a medical condition that involves complex interactions between the brain, body, environment, and even genetics. Addiction manifests as compulsive behavior that a person finds difficult to resist despite knowing the consequences. Often, there are also withdrawal symptoms when addictive behavior is interrupted.
So can eating this delicacy really become an addiction? No. There is no scientific evidence that cheese is addictive or that it significantly affects the brain in a similar way to drugs or alcohol.
That’s not to say that eating it can’t affect your brain’s reward center, which can even make you crave it from time to time.
Where does the myth that cheese is addictive come from?
This topic seemed to begin with a social psychiatry study(2) published in 2015, which investigated whether certain foods are associated with “addiction-like” eating behaviors. And, yes, cheese was one of the foods examined.
Participants were asked to report on their “addictive-type” eating behaviors. In short, they were asked to make decisions about how “problematic” they found certain foods, which was defined as “having trouble reducing the amount of food or losing control over the amount of food consumed.”
Interestingly, while this study might be the source of the confusion that cheese is addictive, it didn’t actually suggest that this food itself is. However, media outlets that took up the study reported this inaccurate data.
The explanation of why we like cheese so much
Therefore, experts conclude that cheese addiction is unproven and give us another explanation for why many of us have trouble resisting eating it.
For starters, the act of eating itself, especially if you’re eating something tasty, like cheese, is satisfying behavior. And our brains are programmed to encourage and ritualize behaviors that bring pleasure. This means that the reason we may sometimes have cravings for cheese could be as simple as “euphoria for rich food.”
In addition, research shows that certain foods can activate reward centers in our brain, invoking positive feelings that encourage us to come back for more and more. These foods usually include those that contain high amounts of added sugars, saturated fats, carbohydrates, or salt.
With its fatty and salty attributes, it is no coincidence, then, that this delicacy can be considered an appetizing food.
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