Researchers using the Yale Food Addiction Scale, which is designed to measure a person’s dependence, found that cheese is extremely addictive.

The team behind the study set find out why certain foods are more addictive than others discovering that cheese has a chemical also found in addictive drugs, as it contains casein.

The substance, present in all dairy products, can trigger the brain’s opioid receptors which are linked to addiction.

Dr. Neal Barnard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine said that the casein in cheese disintegrates during digestion to secrete a surge of casomorphins.

Cameron Wells, registered dietician said, “[Casomorphins] really play with the dopamine receptors and trigger that addictive element.”

Some experts think that cheese is so influential that they describe it as “dairy crack” since it triggers the same part of the brain as hard drugs.