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Cheese, the "dairy crack"

I love cheese. I mean really, really love cheese. It's the main reason (along with ice cream) why I failed as a hard-core vegan many years ago. And now I know why: According to VegSource.com, cheese is up there with chocolate (and, go figure, sausage) in messing with your brain chemistry:

"In 1981, Eli Hazum and his colleagues at Wellcome Research Laboratories in Research Triangle Park, N.C., reported a remarkable discovery. Analyzing samples of cow's milk, they found traces of a chemical that looked very much like morphine. They put it to one chemical test after another. And, finally, they arrived at the conclusion that, in fact, it is morphine. There is not a lot of it and not every sample had detectable levels. But there is indeed some morphine in both cow's milk and human milk."

And from Care2: "Researchers also discovered the protein casein, which breaks into casomorphins when it is digested and also produces opiate effects. In cheese, casein is concentrated, and so is the level of casomorphins, so the pleasurable effect is greater. Neal Barnard, MD said, “Since cheese is processed to express out all the liquid, it’s an incredibly concentrated source of casomorphins—you might call it dairy crack.”

Just some food for thought as you work on the menu for your next event.

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