Cheese *addiction* supposedly validated by science

Soopatt
Soopatt Posts: 563 Member
edited November 25 in Food and Nutrition
I was tempted to post this under "Chit Chat and Fun and Games" so that I did not get gutted for it.

Perhaps they are using the term "addiction" in a colloquial way?

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-cheese-addictive-drugs-20151022-story.html

I am extremely fond of cheese and I would struggle to cut it out my diet, but I don't think I would sell my body or rob my mother for it.
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Replies

  • CarlTheIntern
    CarlTheIntern Posts: 5 Member
    Try to read the source articles - nothing there validates food=drug addictions. This is just click bait.

    Here to help!
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    This thing that came out yesterday is absolutely ludicrous.. I am here to help too!
  • Soopatt
    Soopatt Posts: 563 Member
    It seems disempowering to label yourself as addicted, so I really wish they would stop using the word.

    I can't help picturing someone starting off on 25g grams of cheese a day and having progressed to 2kgs of cheese a day within six months.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4334652/

    Here is the original study if anyone is interested.
  • snikkins
    snikkins Posts: 1,282 Member
    But... but... but... the evil sugar!

    That's pretty much eat I took away. This validates many posters who say that they find cheese much more palatable than sugary things.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    It's consistent with the studies discussed in Salt, Sugar, Fat too (not that I think this means it's an addiction).
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    Funny enough if you read the original study (and I only read part of it so far), it will suggest more "addictive-like" behaviors, rather than addiction.
  • Soopatt
    Soopatt Posts: 563 Member
    psulemon wrote: »
    Funny enough if you read the original study (and I only read part of it so far), it will suggest more "addictive-like" behaviors, rather than addiction.

    Yeah, and if the media didn't sensationalize the results, it would not be so irritating. Not the researchers intent probably.

    I can get behind the idea that cheese is hard to resist - if the word addiction is left out of it.
  • Soopatt
    Soopatt Posts: 563 Member
    When you copy the link it says "cheese is crack"

    *smashes head on desk*
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    psulemon wrote: »
    Funny enough if you read the original study (and I only read part of it so far), it will suggest more "addictive-like" behaviors, rather than addiction.
    It's almost like you can't trust the LA Times food editors to transmit accurate information.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited October 2015
    Soopatt wrote: »
    When you copy the link it says "cheese is crack"

    *smashes head on desk*

    I thought the line in the article about "cheese crack" was even worse. If only because it sounds vaguely dirty or something.

    And yeah, more click bait.
  • Troutrouter1968
    Troutrouter1968 Posts: 122 Member
    edited October 2015
    What I took from the study (thanks, psulemon) was that certain foods act like triggers to addictive-like eating for certain people with some people not having a trigger at all. For me, my trigger is salty snacks so I avoid them. I wouldn't demonize any of the foods types listed in the study because obviously it is individualized.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    edited October 2015
    Soopatt wrote: »
    psulemon wrote: »
    Funny enough if you read the original study (and I only read part of it so far), it will suggest more "addictive-like" behaviors, rather than addiction.

    Yeah, and if the media didn't sensationalize the results, it would not be so irritating. Not the researchers intent probably.

    I can get behind the idea that cheese is hard to resist - if the word addiction is left out of it.

    Ironically, cheese is #16 on the list.. holy crap on a crack!

    pone.0117959.t002

    NIH wrote:
    In summary, the current study found that highly processed foods, with added amounts of fat and/or refined carbohydrates (e.g., sugar, white flour), were most likely to be associated with behavioral indicators of addictive-like eating.


    Essentially, hyperpaltable foods, especially those that combine fats and carbs (making ish yummy as hell) is what makes people have addictive like behavior.
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    DeguelloTex wrote: »
    psulemon wrote: »
    Funny enough if you read the original study (and I only read part of it so far), it will suggest more "addictive-like" behaviors, rather than addiction.
    It's almost like you can't trust the LA Times food editors to transmit accurate information.

    Wait, you mean scientists often use language that couches expectations and makes very meek claims, to avoid being wrong by overstating their case, but journalists take claims and exaggerate them to generate interest in headlines in order to sell copy?

    Has this ever happened before? I might need to read magazine headlines less literally.

    The really sad thing is that even the places that specialize in reporting science ( I****ingLoveScience, Science Direct, Real Clear Science) do this too, and often have people that don't seem to really understand the science writing about it. Now, when the studies themselves start using really definitive language, that's usually an alarm bell for me.
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    Also, I live near U of M, and have actually subjected my kids to their science before. I feel I missed out on a chance to receive a Target gift card or some such for saying how much more I like pizza than pixie stix.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Thought so. It triggers dopamine, which is now recognized as an anticipation response. Merely thinking about pizza can give us a lovely dopamine rush.
  • IILikeToMoveItMoveIt
    IILikeToMoveItMoveIt Posts: 1,172 Member
    Soopatt wrote: »
    It seems disempowering to label yourself as addicted, so I really wish they would stop using the word.

    I can't help picturing someone starting off on 25g grams of cheese a day and having progressed to 2kgs of cheese a day within six months.

    ROFL!! You walk in on them in the bathroom and they are bent over a tiny fondue pot, in the middle of unwrapping a mini baby bell... lol
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    I knew I wasn't the only one heating nacho cheese in a spoon so I can get it into the needle!
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
    rankinsect wrote: »
    I knew I wasn't the only one heating nacho cheese in a spoon so I can get it into the needle!

    Oy.

    I think you're going to need a cannula for that one.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    I believe I said something in my addiction thread about rats having a similar response to both fat and sugar. What interests me about the posts I've seen here -- and will interest me in the future -- is the amount of credulity the community here and the blogosphere meets this study with.

    I'm thinking of the blind acceptance in some quarters of the absolute "addictive" nature of sugar, but say it's cheese? Well, then we apply critical thinking. (Not saying this is necessarily true of the posters already on this thread so far, I'm just... waiting for it.)

    In other news, I thought pizza scoring highest on the YFAS was old news.
  • sheermomentum
    sheermomentum Posts: 827 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    Thought so. It triggers dopamine, which is now recognized as an anticipation response. Merely thinking about pizza can give us a lovely dopamine rush.

    Or, in other words, happy thoughts make you happy?
  • IILikeToMoveItMoveIt
    IILikeToMoveItMoveIt Posts: 1,172 Member
    rankinsect wrote: »
    I knew I wasn't the only one heating nacho cheese in a spoon so I can get it into the needle!

    lol, Velveeta melts better than cheddar...
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    PeachyCarol wrote: »
    I believe I said something in my addiction thread about rats having a similar response to both fat and sugar. What interests me about the posts I've seen here -- and will interest me in the future -- is the amount of credulity the community here and the blogosphere meets this study with.

    I'm thinking of the blind acceptance in some quarters of the absolute "addictive" nature of sugar, but say it's cheese? Well, then we apply critical thinking. (Not saying this is necessarily true of the posters already on this thread so far, I'm just... waiting for it.)

    In other news, I thought pizza scoring highest on the YFAS was old news.

    Well...cheese does contain lactose...so SUGAR IS DA DEBIL!!!
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    IILikeToMoveItMoveIt wrote: »

    lol, Velveeta melts better than cheddar...

    Velveeta is such a gateway cheese. First thing you know, kids are experimenting with a little V, then the next thing you know, they're in a dark alley looking for their next hit of Brie, Camembert, or, God forbid, Roquefort.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    OMG, they have got to stop using the word "addiction" so flippantly. Yes, technically anything that causes a boost in endorphin levels can become addictive. But for real? Every time they post one of these things all I can think is 'how disrespectful this is to ACTUAL addicts of cocaine, or heroin, or alcohol, or any of the many actually dangerous and godawful addictive substances that can destroy your life". As an ex smoker, I'm calling BS.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    Mainlining ricotta! :sick:
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    rankinsect wrote: »
    IILikeToMoveItMoveIt wrote: »

    lol, Velveeta melts better than cheddar...

    Velveeta is such a gateway cheese. First thing you know, kids are experimenting with a little V, then the next thing you know, they're in a dark alley looking for their next hit of Brie, Camembert, or, God forbid, Roquefort.

    LOL I love this!
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    EvgeniZyntx wrote: »
    Mainlining ricotta! :sick:

    Where do I sign up?
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    5wf3tchmpzi8.jpg
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    PeachyCarol wrote: »
    I believe I said something in my addiction thread about rats having a similar response to both fat and sugar. What interests me about the posts I've seen here -- and will interest me in the future -- is the amount of credulity the community here and the blogosphere meets this study with.

    I'm thinking of the blind acceptance in some quarters of the absolute "addictive" nature of sugar, but say it's cheese? Well, then we apply critical thinking. (Not saying this is necessarily true of the posters already on this thread so far, I'm just... waiting for it.)

    In other news, I thought pizza scoring highest on the YFAS was old news.

    +1

    The pizza thing is old news, as is people -- as well as rats -- having a similar brain response to sugar and fat.
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