2 weeks Ago By Sarah Berry
It’s our most popular and patriotic foodstuff. And since it was first made in 1923, using brewers-yeast from the equally iconic VB, it has been marketed as health food. The humble spread, one 1945 advert claimed, helped to keep our brave soldiers alive .
It is also, according to a 1962 advertisement , nature’s richest source of precious “B” group vitamins, giving us what we need for healthy nerves, firm body tissue, and good digestion. Oh and, of course, it puts a rose in every cheek. Vegemite may be our favourite spread but it is not a health spread.
Credit: Michele Mossop No wonder about 90 per cent of Australian households have a jar in the cupboard, and we spend more than $70 million on it each year. Its marketing as both a health food and an essential part of the Australian identity has been so successful that even those of us who typically avoid ultra-processed foods often make an exception for Vegemite. It’s un-Australian not to.
So, it was a plate of poutine in the face when Canada’s food authority ordered an Australian cafe owner to stop serving Vegemite because it was non-compliant with its health regulations. The issue was the vitamin B fortification, the very thing we have been told makes the product healthy. Yet, the Canadian food authority did not share the same perspective, limiting the addition of vitamins to help protect its people from “excessive amounts of certain nutrients in their diet”.
Though a subsequent health risk assessment determined Vegemite was low risk , it begs the question: are the Bs added excessive and do we need to rethink Vegemite as a ‘health’ food? The eight B vitamins - thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, biotin, folic acid, and cobalamin – are essential nutrients that support brain function, our nervous system, support energy release and help to fight fatigue..
