I almost never eat cheese. As a young child, I developed a strong dislike for cheese in all its forms. This seemingly random preference spurred a lifelong effort to avoid cheese and impress onto others the value of reducing cheese consumption. Today, I have a somewhat complex philosophy around cheese. I absolutely refuse to eat so-called “stinky cheeses” under any circumstances; I believe that nobody should eat them when around other people without checking first that the odor will not prove offensive to their table mates. Beyond stinky cheese, I try to avoid other kinds of cheese whenever I can, a stance supported by the gastric distress that can come with eating cheese and other dairy products. This avoidance has two exceptions: I will eat cheese in cases where it would be impolite to refuse, and I will eat cheese in foods where the cheese’s taste and texture is totally dominated by the rest of the food. In this essay, I will explain my philosophy and attempt to persuade readers, both cheese-eaters and cheese-haters, to adopt a similar one.
Cheese stinks. Literally. Stinky cheeses are popular among cheese connoisseurs around the world. My younger sister counts among their ranks; she has a twisted love for Parmesan especially and will pile it on any food she can. An article from Healthline characterizes Parmesan cheese as “an Italian cheese with a characteristically strong and nutty flavor that may be sweet, salty, and bitter at the same time” (Lang). This description leaves out one key characteristic of the cheese—it stinks, especially when it has been heated. Indeed, my sister’s eating it can trigger my gag reflex if I happen to be too close while the fumes waft away from the freshly warmed cheese. This is a result of a well-known quality of Parmesan cheese—it contains butyric acid, which one article describes as “a chemical that contributes to the smell of both Parmesan cheese and vomit” (Jagatia), and which is commonly known to contribute to Parmesan’s distinctive odor. People who deliberately eat Parmesan cheese around other humans without their consent are assaulting their olfactory sensibilities and being generally rude.
I share my disgust around smelly cheese with many like-minded people around the globe. One 2016 study conducted in France found that inhaling the odor of various cheeses was more likely to produce disgust than the odor of other foods. The study discovered that “among the individuals showing disgust for a given food, those disliking cheese represented a higher proportion… than those disliking the other food categories” (Royet et al.). Even in France, a famously cheese-loving country, the odor of cheese is more likely to produce a feeling of disgust than other foods. This aligns with my own experience; while I dislike other foods, nothing provokes the same visceral reaction as cheese. This finding reinforces the fact that cheese’s odor can make it unpleasant and impolite to consume around innocent tablemates of the cheese eater.
An article from the Independent cites William Hanson, an etiquette expert who published a book on the topic, in its description of appropriate workplace snacks. The article combines Hanson’s expertise in etiquette with outside polling to create its own list of office snack etiquette rules. The first rule on this list is to “avoid anything noisy or smelly due to the open-plan nature of most offices today” (Richmond). This etiquette rule can be applied beyond the restrained context of office snacking. It is clearly impolite to force anyone else to endure unpleasant odors without their consent. Stinky cheeses have a strong unpleasant odor. Therefore, people should never eat them without the explicit consent of all those in the area who could be subjected to their odor without an avenue for escape.
At this point, I have established that stinky cheese can be an unpleasant, even rude choice of food when eating with others. Even if you disagree with me on my policy of avoiding cheese, or on any other part of my argument, I hope that we can find agreement on this first point: everyone can agree that it is impolite to subject people to unpleasant odors without their consent, so therefore smelly cheeses should not be eaten around people who have not demonstrated their comfort with such odors. If these other people have indicated that they are comfortable with the odor, the rules of politeness allow for the consumption of stinky cheese.
Although it may be acceptable to eat stinky cheese in certain circumstances, it is also important to note that cheese eating in general can lead to intestinal distress, making it a poor choice of food for many people who want to avoid copious amounts of gas.
For people who are lactose intolerant, the act of eating cheese or other dairy products can cause significant discomfort. The Mayo Clinic describes how people who are lactose intolerant “have diarrhea, gas and bloating after eating or drinking dairy products” (“Lactose Intolerance”). This is a common experience—lactose intolerance is quite common around the globe. The prevalence of this condition makes it extremely likely that many people are experiencing this gastrointestinal distress without even realizing its cause; abstaining from dairy products such as cheese would likely lead to these gastric effects being reduced or even eliminated. Granted, there are products which can also reduce the effects of dairy consumption for lactose-intolerant people, but many people do not know that they are lactose intolerant, and thus cannot benefit from these products. For this reason, many people who are concerned about gastrointestinal issues may consider avoiding dairy entirely.
While cheese is smelly and can cause gastric distress, it must be acknowledged that there are some cases where one either can or must consume cheese. First is when there is no other alternative. In my personal experience, I have sometimes gone to dinners where cheese is an unavoidable part of the menu. For instance, on a school camping trip, the only food one night was mac ’n’ cheese. That night, I ate the mac ’n’ cheese, even though I strongly dislike cheese, because it was the only option available to me. In another example, I have been served salads with cheese incorporated in. It would have been impolite to pick out the cheese particles from the salad, so I ate the salad without adjustment or complaint. In both cases, I did not make any complaints or try to change the situation, as there was no alternative or way to eliminate the cheese from the food being served, so complaining would have had no positive impact on anyone.
These personal experiences can be extrapolated into general rules. If one goes to a dinner party or other event in which the host is serving a meal which includes cheese as part of it, and there is no way to avoid the cheese, then it is acceptable to eat some of the cheese. To refuse would be both impolite and impractical—not only is it rude to turn down food, but refusing to eat food with cheese could mean that one eats nothing at all. In these situations, people should eat their food without complaint or apparent discomfort, as any expression of discomfort will have no positive impact and only serve to make both the guests and host uncomfortable. This would not help anyone. The second case in which it is acceptable to eat cheese is in the context of foods in which the cheese’s odor and texture completely is transformed by whatever food it had become part of, to the point that it can scarcely be called “cheese” anymore. Pizza serves as the typical example in my case. One of the most popular foods in America, pizza is delicious and almost universally appreciated, despite its prominent usage of cheese. Most pizzas start off with mozzarella, a milder and generally less offensive cheese. The cheese’s potentially unpleasant texture and flavor are moderated further—even transformed—by the incorporation of pizza sauce and high heat into the process of making a pizza. With these elements, the cheese on a good pizza is almost unrecognizable. This process makes the cheese on pizza palatable for me, and I believe that this same thought process can be used in the context of other foods which use mild cheeses whose original flavors are overpowered by the rest of the dish—lasagna comes to mind. In these contexts, cheese can be an acceptable part of a meal, if it is not consumed in excess and that the (previously discussed) downsides of eating cheese are known to the consumer. With these foods, the intestinal challenges that can come with cheese may be ignored to fully enjoy the depth of flavor of the dish itself.
At this point, my argument ends. As I described at the beginning of my essay, I do not like cheese, and I have developed an intellectual framework around this disliking. Through this
work, I hope that I have persuaded you, both cheese-lovers and cheese-haters, that people should avoid the consumption of smelly cheeses in public settings because of the unpleasant odor. To the people who are unsure on cheese, I hope that I have pushed you a little further towards avoiding cheese with my description of the prevalence of lactose intolerance, and my explanation of how its effects can be decreased by reducing consumption of dairy products. Finally, to my fellow cheese-haters, I hope that I have given you some food for thought on exceptions to our avoidance of cheese. If I have made you think on any of these topics, I consider this essay a success.
Works Cited
Jagatia, Anand. “What’s in a Smell?” BBC Science Focus Magazine, BBC, 12 July 2023,
www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/whats-in-a-smell.
“Lactose Intolerance.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research,
www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lactose-intolerance/symptoms-causes/syc-20374232. Accessed 27 June 2025.
Lang, Ariane. “Parmesan Cheese: Nutrition, Benefits, and Uses.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 1
May 2023, www.healthline.com/nutrition/parmesan-cheese-nutrition-benefits-uses.
Richmond, Steve. “Office ‘etiquette’ Guide Advises against Eating Smelly Foods in
Workspaces.” The Independent, 26 Sept. 2023, www.theindependent.com/life-style/food-office-advice-eggs-fish-b2418070.html.
Royet, Jean-Pierre, et al. “The neural bases of disgust for cheese: An fmri study.” Frontiers in
Human Neuroscience, vol. 10, 17 Oct. 2016, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.0051
