Scientists Have Discovered Why Some People Hate Cheese

Oozy, melting Cheddar toasties. A slab of veiny Gorgonzola atop a cracker. Generous gratings of Parmesan on anything.

To most people, cheese is like crack. But there are some who gag at the mere mention of "goat cheese" or go into convulsions over the faintest whiff of Brie.

In the past, we were happy to refer to these cheese-hating people simply as "weirdos," but a new study now shows that they could have a neurological excuse for spurning one of the most delicious foods on the planet.

Published a couple of weeks ago in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal, the joint study between France's Centre de Recherche en Neuroscience de Lyon and the Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine looked at the brain function of 30 people who liked and disliked cheese.

Only the French could produce a paper titled The Neural Bases of Disgust for Cheese to try and understand why anyone wouldn't like what's basically their national dish.

The researchers found that when participants who didn't like le fromage were presented with images and smells of different cheeses (blue cheese, Cheddar, goat cheese, Gruyère, Parmesan, and tomme), the ventral pallidum, a brain structure that lights up when we're hungry, was completely inactive. Conversely, the ventral pallidum did show activity when presented with pictures and odours of other foods including cucumber, fennel, mushroom, pâté, peanut, and pizza.

More surprisingly, the French study showed that the globus pallidus and substantia nigra—parts of the brain usually triggered when you love something—were more active in those who had an aversion to cheese. The researchers say that this could prove that the reward circuit has a dual purpose, involved in both aversive behaviour as well as motivational behaviour.

So, if you're partial to polishing off a cheeseboard, don't feel bad. You can just blame it on your overactive ventral pallidum.