“Roses are red, violets are blue, Marmite you’re brown…and I love you. X”
So says seventeen-year-old Cheryl, on the back of each jar of Marmite – the UK’s classic yeast extract spread.
And I’m with her. Not just because I happen to like the tangy taste of the famous love-it-or-hate-it condiment, but also because it is loaded with B vitamins – which could help make you happy.
These essential nutrients not only play a fundamental part in your physical wellbeing, but also your mental and emotional state. You might well “B” low, without realising it.
B complex is a vitamin group vital for proper nerve function and energy production. They also alleviate stress and prevent arteries thickening.
Deficiency symptoms range widely from tiredness, nervousness and depression, to anaemia, weak digestion and poor appetite, as well as constipation, hair loss and high cholesterol. Insufficient folic acid in pregnant women has also been linked with birth defects, like spina bifida.
Marmite’s 100% vegetarian ingredients reveals yeast extract, salt, vegetable and spice extracts, plus the magic “Bs”: riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), folic acid, vitamin B12, and thiamin (B1) the so-called ‘morale-boosting vitamin,’ as it promotes a feeling of optimism.
Yet you don’t usually need large quantities of these nutrients to stay in top form. For example, a four-gramme serving of Marmite could provide roughly a fifth of an adult’s daily dose of B1 and B2, a third of the B3, and almost half the folic acid and B12.
However, if your palate says “no” to a couple of dollops of the brown yeasty stuff on your toast but “yes” to the benefits, then perhaps try brewer’s yeast.
This health shop staple is also packed with boosting B vitamins, and is almost half complete protein with all the essential amino acids, along with trace elements, such as iron and copper to treat anaemia, chromium for diabetics and hypoglycaemics, as well as the disease-preventing wonder element, selenium.
Advertisers once described Marmite as “my mate.” Perhaps it is time to B friendly for health and happiness.
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