In his 22nd Discworld novel, The Last Continent, the late Sir Terry Pratchett’s protagonist (Rincewind the wizard) travels through a continent so mysterious it doesn’t have a proper name. The continent, and Rincewind’s escapades, are a very English parody of Australia. At one point, Rincewind even accidentally invents vegemite from a mixture of beer and vegetables.
“It was kind of horrible, but nevertheless Rincewind found himself having another taste.”
For the uninitiated, Vegemite is a yeast-based spread that’s particularly popular in Australia, and in TikToks by Americans asking why Australians like Vegemite. My background research tells me that, as I suspected, it’s a close cousin to Marmite, also a salty dark spread, launched in the UK in 1902. Both are made using yeast extracts derived from barley, but Marmite adds in extracts from oats and rye whereas Vegemite draws upon wheat. And vegetable juice.
Mainly for laughs, I included a question about this “dark brown goo” in my end-of-2023 survey. Specifically, I asked people whether they preferred Marmite, Vegemite, or neither (the exact response option was “Um, definitely neither. Blech.”).
The winner was Marmite, 46% to 36%, with 18% declining the salty attractions of either. People who opted for Vegemite tended to be more agreeable, conscientious and extroverted in personality. I’ve no idea why this might be.
People who preferred Vegemite also reported greater disgust sensitivity than Marmite-lovers, but on a par with people who don’t like either. Disgust sensitivity, as the label suggests, is a measure of how easily disgusted a person is. So, why would people who prefer Vegemite report more disgust sensitivity? Maybe Marmite is more yuck so people who eat it have to be less sensitive to yuck?
I’m not aware of any Marmite/Vegemite psychology research in Aotearoa but it’s clearly important for Australians. One of my favourite disgust researchers, Paul Rozin, reported in 2003 that Aussies are more likely to delight in Vegemite if they try it early in childhood, and that delight is correlated with individual national identity.
Importantly, and unsurprising given how they’re made, Marmite and Vegemite contain a fair amount of B vitamins, which may be important for regulating mood and worry. At least that’s what research by David Field and colleagues at the University of Reading concluded in 2022.
In that study, researchers recruited a group of almost 500 young people and assessed their mood and anxiety before supplementation. Then, participants received vitamin B6, vitamin B12 or placebo tablets, which were taken for a month.
B12 crops up in foods that come from animals (eg, meat, dairy, eggs). It’s important for making healthy blood, among other things. B6 has been shown to promote healthy immune system and nervous system function.
B vitamins have also been proposed as “inhibitors of neural excitation” – the kind of excessive brain activity that is associated with anxiety, as well as autism and psychosis.
In Field’s study, B12 didn’t show a statistically significant effect on mood or worry, but the same wasn’t true for B6 supplementation. The B6 group reported a 13% decrease in anxiety symptoms compared to the placebo group. Data from other tasks indicated that this is because the B6 group showed greater neural inhibition associated with higher levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA.
I was able to find a 2017 study that did something similar, but rather than giving participants B supplements, they got to eat Marmite instead. That study showed a similar effect on dampening excessive neural activity.
Before you go out and buy a jar of Marmite for your anxiety, it is unfortunately the case that while Marmite contains a good whack of B12, it contains only negligible amounts of B6.
