Opiate addiction & food: Scientific correlation or fiction?
- Carolyn Cacace
- Jan 20, 2016
- 2 min read
As a Caseworker, I’ve worked with many individuals struggling with all types of substance abuse. For the purpose of this blog post, I am focusing on opiate addiction. This includes prescription pain medications like Oxycodone and the illegal drug heroin. There seems to be an epidemic of both in my part of the world, one I hope subsides soon. While I’ve never been addicted to either one of these substances myself, I’ve observed how difficult it is for others to get clean and maintain sobriety. Treatment often includes an inpatient stay for at least 28 days followed by outpatient counseling 2 to 5 days a week, plus the added support of NA or even AA.
As plant-based eater and Health Coach, I also know that giving up dairy products can be extremely difficult due to the opiate like substance in them called Casein. Casein is a protein found in milk and milk is used to make cheese. Allegedly, casein has similar effects on the brain as an opiate, prescribed or otherwise. So if you’ve ever heard someone say, “I could never give up cheese”, this may be the reason. I know from experience that I had withdrawals the first few times I tried to give up dairy products. I could rationally tell myself in the morning, ok this is the day I stop eating cheese but by lunchtime, I was eating a greek salad loaded with feta. I just couldn’t do it until all of a sudden, with the right support, I could.
I remember reading in Alicia Silverstone’s book, The Kind Diet, about how a baby calf is, in a sense, drawn to its mamma during their udder feeding days by this very same casein. This made sense to me. Casein is addictive and quitting it was much like quitting nicotine. It has to leave your body completely in order to stop the cravings. So don’t blame yourself if you are having a hard time letting go of dairy. Besides the brainwashing campaigns that milk is good for you(that’s a whole other post!)-weaning off dairy and detoxing off drugs may just be one and the same.
So after 6 years of maintaining my own dairy sobriety while working with drug addicts, I can’t help but wonder: is there science to back up the differences or similarities between drug and food addiction when opiates are involved? Would an opiate addict suffer less, recover faster or maintain their sobriety longer if they gave up dairy products?
If anything, these questions are certainly interesting, dairy free food for thought.
Kindly yours, Carolyn
*This post is not meant to minimize substance abuse. Addiction is a serious disease that usually requires medical and/or mental health intervention. Please contact your healthcare provider for assistance. In addition, here are some helpful links I found online.
*The needles pictured are only used for my cats’ insulin injections. The carton of “milk” is actually Silk organic unsweetened soymilk
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