A Newcastle urban legend says that rubbing Marmite on a balding head cures hair loss, on account of its folic acid. It does not, and you end up with a sticky pillowcase. But the folic acid is real, and the story behind it, a doctor curing pregnant women in 1930s India with Marmite, is one of the great moments in British medicine.
Marmite Myths
Famous Marmite myths, busted. The stories everyone repeats about Marmite that turn out to be wrong, and what actually happened.
Category: Marmite Myths | View all articles
Does eating Marmite repel mosquitoes? What the science says
A popular bit of holiday wisdom says that eating Marmite, packed with B vitamins, makes your sweat repel mosquitoes. It is one of the most thoroughly tested folk remedies there is, and it has failed every test since 1969. Marmite does many things. Keeping the midges off you is not one of them.
Is Marmite banned in British prisons? The 'Marmite Mule' myth
The story goes that Marmite is banned in British prisons because inmates were using it to brew illicit alcohol. It makes a good headline and a worse fact. There is no blanket ban, and the science the myth rests on is wrong: the yeast in Marmite is dead before it reaches the jar, so it cannot ferment anything.
Does Marmite turn white if you stir it? Almost, and the reason is pure physics
Most Marmite myths fall apart the moment you check them. This one does the opposite. Whip a blob of Marmite hard enough and it really does lighten dramatically, from near-black to a pale milky beige. Not, despite the legend, pure white, but startlingly pale. It is not a trick or a chemical reaction. It is physics, and you can do it on your own toast.
Was Marmite banned in Denmark? The truth behind the 2011 'ban'
In 2011 the world's papers announced that Denmark had banned Marmite. It had not, and the Danish food authority said so directly. What actually happened was a 2004 law on vitamin-fortified foods, a marketing application nobody had filed, and a very good headline. The real story of the Anglo-Danish Marmite war.
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