Does anyone not like cheese

Oh, then there were the cheese smells. Each participant was strapped in and presented with 84 food smells or food smells and photos.

This sounds like an interesting olfactory experience, though in reality, only 12 foods were used , half of which were different kinds of cheese. After analyzing the brain images from the functional MRI machine, the team saw a few interesting things. First, there was activity in the brain's reward circuit when the "pro" people smelled cheese, but weirdly, that area of the brain was also active when the "anti" people smelled cheese. Is it that smelling cheese acts as some kind of negative reward?

Or, could it be that they secretly do love cheese?! The researchers say that it's actually the former -- it turns out that when you dislike a food, it's inspired in part by reward pathways in your brain reminding you NOT to eat it. It's like some kind of perverse food masochism; your brain enjoys the denial.

Royet and his team also saw that among the cheese haters, "The brain area that is normally activated when we are hungry, the ventral pallidum, was no longer activated. So the other major reward you might receive from eating cheese -- satiating your hunger, even if you don't like it -- is suppressed at the same time your reward circuits are reminding you how much you hate the food.

Unfortunately, the aim of this experiment was not to cure hatred of cheese, and it's a tough condition. Royet points out empathetically. Skip to main content Health. Finger food is for cheese-lovers, not us poor, neglected souls.

Everyone can bang on about it all they like. This is especially strange when people ask you after seeing you tuck into a plate of fish and chips. It smells awful. The name ruins it enough, and you now have one less option available on the dessert menu. Why must bad things happen to good people? You weep for humanity. Getty Images. For all of the cultural and internet love that cheese inspires, cheese haters still walk among us. And they are everywhere.

While, obviously, not all people hate cheese — a single French citizen ate about The study tackles some big ideas in the world of cheese hatred. Part of the hatred, the study suggests, comes down to negative experiences with cheese , like the misery of lactose intolerance 18 percent of subjects said they had milk intolerance. Ultimately, the study found that a key brain area associated with reward, the ventral palladium, is deactivated in cheese haters.

Instead, disgust is triggered. That may seem impossible to a lover of cheese, but it's actually a fairly normal reaction, explains Paul Rozin , a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania and a cultural psychologist who studies food and human life. The science of hating cheese — The reasons people give for thinking cheese is gross actually make a lot of sense. Cheese-making begins with curdling milk , the first step towards spoilage that smells abhorrent if you encounter it by accident.

This is a classic smell of decay , Rozin says. On its own, it is enough to turn your stomach. Cheese, in turn, never stops emitting that decay odor. However, the way we feel about that odor can change.