British Cheese Week: Causing a stink in a town near you

It's British Cheese Week this week from 24 September to 2nd October. To celebrate, Emily Jupp shares some little-known facts about cheese.

* We're hard-wired to like cheese. It contains tryptophan, an amino acid that makes us feel content. In addition, the fat it includes makes our brains produce extra dopamine, which makes us happy. If consumed in small amounts, cheese can be beneficial to your health; it contains important minerals and around seven times the amount of calcium as milk

* 98 per cent of British households buy cheddar as their cheese of choice

* There are over 700 different varieties of British cheese

* Despite old wives’ tales to the contrary, it actually acts as a sleep aid. "It won't give you nightmares. We did a study that de-bunked that story a few years ago,” says Nigel White, secretary of the British Cheese Board. “In fact, if you have some cheese about an hour before going to be bed it will probably help you have a good night's sleep because the tryptophan helps you relax"

* The Cornish Yarg, a tangy cornish cheese got it's name from its maker, whose last name is Gray. He needed a 'Cornish-sounding name' and realised that his last name spelled backwards fitted the bill

* Cheddar is named after the Cheddar Gorge caves in Somerset

* Every spring, locals in the village of Stilton, Peterborough, race down a hill rolling Stilton shaped wheels.

Events are taking place throughout the week. Some participants in Cheese Week include:

Cardiff Castle

Daily Bread Ltd

The National Trust

Neal's Yard

Paxton and Whitfield

The British Cheese Board has released an app to help people discover new cheeses. Find it here: www.britishcheese.com