How to Stop Craving Cheese: 14 Tips to Quit for Good

How to Stop Craving Cheese: 14 Tips to Quit for Good

Tyler McFarland Tyler McFarland on April 12, 2021

Updated on November 8, 2023 Reviewed and fact-checked Found a mistake? Let us know!

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I’ve been running a survey for the past few months, asking my blog readers about their biggest struggles with veganism. I’ve gotten hundreds of answers, including dining out, unsupportive family members, and more.

But do you want to know the most common answer, out of everything? It’s giving up cheese. Yep. This one food causes more trouble than any other. And there’s actually a crazy scientific explanation for why…

Why Is Cheese So Addictive?

I was recently chatting with a few readers about how to quit cheese. And I remembered some research I heard about a few years ago.

So I looked into it, and I was actually shocked by what I found… This research actually shows that cheese is chemically addictive. No kidding. The Los Angeles Times actually ran an article with the following title:

Now, what on Earth could make cheese “as addictive as drugs”? Well, in truth, it’s probably a mix of factors.

Any high-calorie food has the potential to give us strong urges. This is because in our evolution, calories were scarce. We developed a strong tendency to desire dense sources of calories and nutrition.

Dr. Doug Lisle calls this “The Pleasure Trap,” and it explains our addiction to fast-food, sugar, and more… But there’s something extra happening with cheese.

There’s a specific molecule that is said to make cheese extra addictive. It’s called “casomorphin.” And it’s a type of natural opiate found in cheese… Yes, opiate!

Dr. Neal Barnard, President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), actually wrote a whole book about this, called The Cheese Trap.

The theory is that these addictive compounds, found in the milk protein casein, help to ensure that baby cows keep coming back for their mother’s milk. But now it has you coming back… even when you want to quit!

So, if you’re struggling to quit cheese, I want you to know: It’s not because you’re weak. And as my survey showed, you’re not alone, either! Cheese is very hard for many people to give up.

What Is the Meaning of Cheese Cravings?

I want to cover something as a quick side note here.

Some people think their food cravings mean something… They crave cheese, and they wonder what nutrient they’re missing, for example. But is there any truth to that?

Personally, I wouldn’t bet on it. Sure, it’s always possible that your body is craving a specific nutrient in cheese. But it’s much more likely that you’re just craving the calories, fat, salt, and addictive casomorphins.

Think about it like this: When people crave cigarettes, does it mean their body actually needs a nutrient found in cigarettes?

Why Quit Cheese

When you hear cheese is addictive, your response might be to be discouraged from trying to quit—like the odds are stacked against you. But let me emphasize: It is worth the effort.

Cheese is the biggest source of saturated fat in the American diet. Saturated fat raises your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, which increases heart disease risk. And it can also lead to insulin resistance.

Cheese is also just a very high-calorie, highly fattening food.

Like all dairy products, cheese causes digestive issues for many people. You may not even be able to tell how bad it’s making you feel until you quit. Many people find they have better skin, more energy, and just feel better after they quit dairy.

And that’s not even getting into the ethical reasons to quit dairy… like how cows are treated on farms.

So what can you do to quit?

14 Tips to Overcome Cheese Addiction

I wanted to share everything I could think of that would help you quit cheese… and I came up with 14 separate tips.

My personal favorite is probably tip #11… But some of you will find that advice too harsh, and you may just prefer some of the specific foods I recommend in tips 5 through 10.

In any case, just save the tips that resonate with you. Ignore the ones that don’t fit your goals or personality. Let’s dive in!

1. Cultivate and Remember Your “Why”

For me personally, I went vegan for the animals. And that provided me a very strong “why.” I felt that it was morally wrong to eat cheese. So that’s a bit of a stronger reason than just “Yeahhh, I probably should quit.”

But whatever reason you have for quitting cheese, really focus on it. Cultivate it, remind yourself of it, and dig deeper into it.

If you’re quitting cheese for health reasons, then get a book like Dr. Neal Barnard’s The Cheese Trap. Read it or listen to the audiobook every day.

If you’re doing it for the animals or the environmental impact, then maybe watching more vegan documentaries about those issues will help keep motivation high.

In the long run, you don’t want to rely on feelings of motivation to stay cheese-free. You want to build new habits that make cheese-free living effortless. But in the beginning, motivation is key.

Here’s one more tip about motivation: Don’t just focus on logical reasons to quit cheese. Personally identify your most emotional “why.” Be very honest about the pain or disgust you feel associated with it.

If you’re doing this for multiple health and ethical reasons but it’s honestly your weight or your acne that hurts the most, then be honest with yourself about that. Tap into your real, most emotional why, and make that your source of motivation.

2. Set Your Environment Up for Success

Even with a good source of motivation, relying on your will-power to achieve goals is just not smart. Whenever you can just remove temptation and remove the possibility of unwanted action, that is far more effective.

So what does this mean for quitting cheese? Well… get all the cheese out of your house (if possible)! Ideally, get your roommates or family to cooperate and not bring any around you, either.

There are potentially deeper levels to environmental optimization, though:

  • You could have a reminder that pops up daily on your computer or phone that reminds you about your goal and your “why.”
  • You can stock your kitchen with many cheese replacement foods (see below for ideas), so they’re always on hand.
  • You could do meal prep each weekend, so you have easy, quick vegan meals ready all week without needing much prep.
  • You can make a list of vegan-friendly restaurants in your area, and even pre-decide what dishes you want to try—so you’ve got those options ready at a moment’s notice, too.

Be creative and do what you can. Sometimes we don’t have control over our environment, but there may be half-measures and creative workarounds that can still make it easier for you to stick to your goal.

For more ideas about environment optimization and why it’s so crucial for behavior change, read “Whole Food Island” from the ikario blog. It really changed my perspective on how to achieve my goals most effectively.

3. Start Gradually With Cheese-Free Days.

This is an optional strategy that I personally wouldn’t use—but it’s ideal for many people. The idea is just to have “Vegan Mondays” or “Cheese-Free Wednesdays” or whatever first. Or do M/W/F. Or Tu/Th. You get the idea.

This obviously makes things easier, as the period of time to resist cravings is limited. You might be stronger in resisting temptations if you know that tomorrow you’ll be allowed to have cheese again.

You can gradually “wean” yourself off of cheese this way. Just slowly increase the number of cheese-free days per week.

Personally, this isn’t my style. I like making “cold turkey” changes like going vegan overnight. I think that’s because I tend to view these things in terms of morality.

Once I’ve really made a decision that I think it’s wrong to do X, I personally want to completely avoid it. I want to cut all my ties to it, take dramatic and massive action, and just usher in a new era immediately. I like to “burn the boats” if possible, and just go all in.

That said, many people prefer a gradual transition to veganism or dairy-free living. And if that’s you, then cheese-free days are a great way to do that.

4. Do a 30-Day Challenge With a Friend.

This is really two tips in one:

  1. Do a 30-day No-Cheese Challenge.
  2. Get a friend to do it with you.

The reason to set yourself a 30-day challenge is simple: If you can make it through one month without cheese, it will get much easier after that. You’ll have new habits and fewer urges by that point.

Now, why should you get a friend to do it with you?

Well, one of the tips I always give for new vegans is, “Try to convince a friend to go vegan with you.” Obviously, that doesn’t always work out. But you may be able to convince a friend to at least try temporarily cutting out cheese with you.

Having a friend do the challenge with you can help in many ways:

  • You’ll have someone to try vegan cheese (or cheeseless pizzas) with.
  • You’ll have someone to talk to about how it’s going.
  • You’ll have fewer people around you tempting you with cheesy foods.

Even if your friend doesn’t 100% follow the same rules as you, they can potentially help you as an accountability partner. For some people, having an “accountability partner” is really key to sticking to goals.

Personally for me, I used to be very inconsistent with working on this blog. But a few months ago, I started an accountability group with a few other bloggers. Now, I’ve published on this blog every single day for the last 100 days.

5. Try Some “Vegan Cheese” (Recipes or Store-Bought).

Is fake cheese like Daiya actually healthy? Well, sometimes they’re better than real cheese… But they often have problems, too. See my post “Is Daiya Cheese Healthy?” for a closer look.

Sorry this is an obvious suggestion, but I have some more specific tips to give, too.

First, be honest with yourself about whether you enjoy making recipes in the kitchen. I’ve recently gotten honest with myself about the fact that I don’t really love cooking or baking. It’s not my passion. And that’s okay.

So for me, I’d lean toward trying various brands of store-bought vegan cheese. However, you may find more satisfaction making your own homemade vegan cheese.

Whether you focus on store-bought, homemade, or a mix of both, the key is to try a wide variety.

Vegan cheese is an art-form that is rapidly developing. New brands of vegan cheese are showing up in grocery stores all the time. And there are entire cookbooks of vegan cheese recipes now:

Seriously… Gone are the days of saying “I tried vegan cheese once—it sucked.” Now you have dozens, or hundreds, of vegan cheeses you can try.

Some will be better than others. None of them will be exactly like real cheese. But some of them will be really freaking good. Some of them will work to replace certain things you liked about cheese. They can help at least a bit.

6. Get Addicted to Nutritional Yeast Instead.

If you’ve been exploring the vegan world for a while, you’ve probably heard of nutritional yeast. And you may have noticed that many vegans seem addicted to it!

Nutritional yeast doesn’t actually taste that much like cheese. But it does fill a similar role. It provides a nutty, tangy, “funky,” fermented, umami taste.

It’s also very flexible in a similar way as cheese. You can kinda put it on everything. Or at least everything salty and savory. (I wouldn’t necessarily put it on sweets…)

And nutritional yeast is much healthier than cheese. It’s shown promise for preventing the common cold and possibly even helping prevent cancer. (Just be wary of it if you have Crohn’s disease.)

See a few of my other blog posts about nutritional yeast:

7. Find New Creamy Textures From Plants.

Now let’s think outside the box a bit more with replacing cheese in your diet. If we want to replace specific attributes of cheese, we should try to find some creamy foods for starters.

Here are a list of creamy plant foods that come to mind: