Cheese Addict? There’s A Genuine Reason You Can’t Get Enough Of The Stuff

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that cheese is the food of the gods, and if you don’t consider yourself a cheese fiend, we can almost guarantee that you’ve a friend or family member who’ll happily switch out the chocolate dessert for an Italian-style cheese board when given the choice.

Now science has found that there’s a genuine reason for your tendency to eat an entire wheel of brie and genetics is a pretty big part of it.

In fact, scientists at University Of Cambridge have discovered that peeps who have a specific genetic defect known as the MC4R have a predisposition for high-fat foods like butter and cheese, explaining why you can never go passed a cheese toastie.

The upshot is that folks with this particular gene find it easier to crush chocolate cravings, but have a much harder time when it comes to resisting a cheeky sliver of camembert.

To test the theory, scientists laid out a high-fat buffet consisting of Chicken Korma (er, where was our invite?) followed by a dessert platter of Eton Mess to 54 participants.

And the results spoke for themselves: those with the MC4R gene gorged on a significantly higher portion of the high-fat option and favoured the sugary choice less.

Speaking of the results, co-author Sadaf Farooqi explained “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.”

Basically, the next time a friend challenges your cheese tendencies, you can simply tell them it’s science and resistance is futile.

• Cheese
• fitness
• food
• health