Do you ever find yourself irresistibly drawn to cheese, wondering why it has such a strong grip on your cravings? Whether it’s a love for its creamy texture or the comfort it brings, cheese cravings can be influenced by a variety of nutritional and psychological factors.

In this article, we’ll dive into the top five reasons behind your cheese cravings and provide practical tips to help you manage them effectively.

To support you on this journey, the Eating Enlightenment Food Journal App offers a holistic approach to understanding and managing your eating habits. By tracking your cravings, emotional eating, and binge tendencies, this app helps you gain control over your relationship with food.

If you’re curious about why cheese has such a powerful allure and how to keep these cravings in check, read on to uncover valuable insights and strategies.

1 – You’re Not Getting Enough To Eat

Cheese is very filling. Cheese contains: 

• Fat, which digests slowly and will keep you full for more extended periods
• Protein (for muscles), which also digests slowly

I know back in high school, I would come home absolutely ravenous. 

I didn’t eat enough during the day, so I would wolf down a block of cheese when I came home. 

I would eat a huge hunk of cheese plain!!

But this had nothing to do with cheese, per se. I was just famished, and my body craved food sources that would give me many calories!

This reason—malnutrition and insufficient eating—is also a primary factor in sweet cravings at night!

2 – You’re Not Getting Enough Fat

Cheese, for many vegetarians, is their primary source of fat.

My friend in college was a proud vegetarian. She primarily ate:

• vegetables and beans
• fruits

However, my friend wasn’t getting fat through other dietary sources. 

Just like me, she would start to have cravings and then eat a ton of cheese in ridiculous ways!

• Cheese sandwiches
• Whole chunks of cheese
• Picking the cheese off the pizza

Now, you may not be vegetarian …

But you, too, may not be eating enough fat through other dietary sources, and you can be craving cheese.

These two reasons – not eating enough and not getting enough fat — are what almost all food cravings mean. If you are eating food but not getting full, this can help explain why.

Your Body Needs Fat

• Fat helps protect the vital organs of your body
• Fat digests slowly and keeps you full for longer

Generally speaking, the healthy range of fat for men is around 10-20% of body weight, whereas for women, the healthy range is 20-35%.

A healthy human still has 10% body fat or more under optimal conditions.

You need fat! 

Cheese is very dense and contains high amounts of fat and calories, which helps give your body the energy it needs.

As I said above, not getting enough fat and not getting enough food to eat are the primary reasons why you crave cheese and foods like cheese, such as ice cream.

You need healthy sources of fat in your diet, whether that fat comes from cheese, fish, nuts, olive oil, or whatever.

The best idea is to try mixing things up!

Why Do I Crave Dairy Products And Eggs?

While this article’s focus is cheese …

The same reasoning can also be applied to dairy products and eggs! 

Cheese, dairy products, and eggs are all very similar:

• Come from animals
• Have high proportions of fat and protein
• Rich, creamy texture

Dairy products include:

• ice cream
• butter
• yogurts

You may be craving dairy products like ice cream and eggs because these foods are like cheese.

They contain high fat and calories, which your body needs to function.

Of course, too much of these foods can result in high blood pressure and could cause your body to experience bloating. However, foods high in healthy fats can help with cholesterol and overall health.

If you aren’t getting enough calories and fat from, for example, cheese or these other sources, you will get food cravings no matter what.

What Do Cravings Mean? Two Main Meanings

There is one more primary reason for cravings.

To recap, the two reasons behind cravings relate to your body’s need for fuel and energy:

• When you don’t eat enough, you run low on energy, and your body naturally craves foods like cheese to replenish
• If you are low on fat, your body naturally craves food to get more fat

Again, if you’re looking for a craving meaning, these two reasons explain at least 50% of all food cravings!

The reason so many food cravings are explained by these two reasons is simple.

These types of cravings are known as homeostatic hunger or physical hunger.

These craving sensations are your body’s natural desire to eat food to get fuel and energy. 

For example, you may be genuinely physically hungry for salty food after a sweaty workout: 

• During the workout, you burn many calories and sweat a lot. 
• So then you experience salt cravings naturally because you need to replenish your body’s fuel and salt supply.

In this situation, it’s perfectly normal to feel a food craving for a big, salty burger to replenish your body’s stores of fat, calories, and salt.

However, a THIRD reason can also drive cravings: emotions.

According to Amy Gorin, RDN, this type of hunger is called hedonic hunger.

Hedonic hunger is when you are ‘hungry’ for food but not physically hungry.

3 – Emotional Eating

Acting on hedonic hunger is known as emotional eating. That is, you’re not eating because you are physically hungry but because you are reacting to your emotions.

There are several ways this can happen. For example, foods high in fat and sugar can evoke chemical reactions in the human body. 

Just anticipating the thought of having sugary or fatty food can make your brain emit the neurotransmitter dopamine. And dopamine is known as the ‘feel good’ chemical.

Here are some other ways foods may make you ‘feel good’ and hence eat in response to your emotions:

• Excitement and novelty when you’re feeling bored
• Distraction from thinking when you’re worried and stressed out
• I was feeling full (and bloated) instead of feeling complex emotions.
• Giving you a variety of sensations and flavors that shift your attention away from the difficulties of life

Cheese Can Be An Emotional Eating Magnet!

Cheese may be your emotional eating magnet for many reasons:

• Cheese is cheap
• Cheese comes in many different varieties
• Cheese can help keep you full and provide fat sources
• Cheese is convenient
• Cheese is paired well with other foods, such as bread, that can make you prone to food cravings.

4 – Lack Of Vitamin D 

If you read on the internet, some health blogs will say that cheese cravings are due to a lack of vitamin D.

Vitamin D is typically from the sun but can be added to various products.

For example, there is some truth to the matter because cheese does contain vitamin D. 

Other dairy products, like milk, also contain vitamin D. For many people, adding vitamin D to milk is how they get their vitamin D!

However, the temptation is to think you may need Vitamin D, and then your cheese cravings will go away.

After all, it’s easy to just get a vitamin D supplement, and then all your problems will disappear!

You wouldn’t have to examine your eating habits or perform critical analysis to determine the underlying factors behind your food cravings or what these cravings mean.

Nonetheless, vitamin D deficiency can significantly increase cheese cravings, so a vitamin D supplement may help improve overall health.

Read my ‘best vitamin D supplements’ review article here.

Craving cheese vitamin deficiency

But please remember the three main reasons behind cheese cravings:

• Not enough food
• Not enough fat
• Emotional eating

You may indeed be craving dairy products, like cravings for milk and cheese, because you may lack Vitamin D…

The odds are greater that your cheese cravings are because you are not eating sufficiently or are eating emotionally.

Nutritional deficiencies can lead to all sorts of other odd cravings, too—like ice cravings—so if your cheese cravings are constantly out of control, there is likely some underlying deficiency.

5 – Creamy

Cheese also has a creamy texture that is hard to replicate!

What other foods out there are like cheese and dairy?

The simple truth is that animal products are hard to replicate. Just think about how much money and technology are needed to replicate the taste of meat!

Something about animal products like cheese, with their soft, creamy texture, awakens the ‘primordial instinct’ within all of us.

This unique texture is sometimes what’s driving your food cravings!

But keep in mind that the creamy texture and lack of vitamin D are less likely causes of cheese cravings. 

You’re still most likely not eating enough, not getting enough fat from other sources, or emotionally eating.

Other random cheese cravings

If you are having strange cheese cravings, their unique flavor and texture combinations can explain why.

Just think about all the different flavors and textures of cheese!

• Nachos – hot liquid cheese, spicy, often with a cooling sour cream
• Macaroni and Cheese – smooth, creamy, cheesy sauce with al dente pasta
• Cheese on Toast – gooey, stringy cheese melted on top of crispy toast
• Fondue – gooey, gooey melted cheese often spiked with alcohol served with bread or vegetables for dipping
• There’s even lactose-free cheese!

These are only a few of the thousands of different types of cheese out there!

How Do I Stop Craving Cheese?

The most straightforward way to stop craving cheese has two parts:

• Get more healthy food during the day
• Get a variety of healthy food during the day

Eat More Healthy Food During The Day

Your body is like a car. Without fuel, the car stops running.

Your body needs fuel to breathe, think, and talk.

That’s why we need some calories for blood sugar. Sugar in your blood is the fuel.

A car will make a few shudders and stop when it runs out of gasoline.  

In your body, low or no fuel signals are your cravings.

Cravings are a sign that you need more fuel!

Just eat more food.

• Have a bigger breakfast
• Have a bigger lunch
• Have a snack before dinner

Get A Variety Of Healthy Food During The Day

Of course, you can’t just eat carbs all day, either!

Sure, you can have ‘more’ food … 

But you need to get a variety of ‘more’ food, and it should be balanced.

Eating more carbs like pasta, pizza, and other empty carbs doesn’t count!

• A giant bowl of cereal doesn’t count.
• More french fries don’t count!
• More muffins and rolls don’t count

Of course, you can have cereal, french fries, muffins, and rolls.

But a significant key to ridding yourself of cravings (not just cheese cravings but all cravings for comfort foods) …

It is to combine ‘more’ with ‘variety’ and ensure that the variety is wholesome.

When you eat various, more wholesome foods, your entire life changes!

Benefits Of Eating More Wholesome Foods

• More energy
• More mental clarity
• Less mood swings
• I feel better!
• Weight loss, too (but that’s not the point)

Of course, you already know these things …

Ideas For Wholesome Foods:

I’ll stick with my previous examples of cereal, french fries, and muffins and rolls 🙂

Using these admittedly silly (but realistic for many of us) examples, you can get the idea behind what I mean by ‘more’ and ‘variety’:

• Cereal + nuts + berries + yogurt
• Chicken + whole wheat bread + veggies + water
• Muffins and rolls + fruit + nuts

The key is to eat ‘more’ in amount and variety!\

What does it mean when you crave cheese?

Cheese cravings can mean many different things, depending on the person.

Sometimes, it could be as simple as needing more fat in their diet, while other times, it might be an indicator of an emotional eating disorder.

If you constantly crave cheese, it might be worth reading our food craving chart article to learn more about what could be causing your cheese cravings and how to address them.