Marmite for babies (Marmite)

Member Name: mutherh

Product:	Marmite
Date:	17/08/09 (31 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Full of B vitamins and folic acid

Disadvantages: Not a cheap food

The mystery as to why some people hate Marmite whilst others love it begins in babyhood. If you were handed a finger of buttery Marmite toast as you sat in your highchair, you would grow up to be a Marmite lover.

Yes! This is a great infant food and babies love it.

The ingredients of niacin, thiamin, riboflavin, folic acid, and vitamin B12 are essential for the healthy growth and development of infants. Folic acid is needed for brain development, and the B vitamins for the nervous system. Babies get their B12 in the womb, and from mum's breastmilk, but after a few months her store is depleted.

I saw a drama on TV years ago called Tenko. It was about women prisoners in a Japanese camp during WWII. One of them escaped and met her lover who had escaped from his camp. They had raided the Red Cross supplies and come away with jars of Marmite - which they ate in one go!

I think it significant that the Red Cross felt Marmite was needed in food supplies to the camps.

From personal experience I go months without eating Marmite, but it is usually when I've been under a great deal of work and stress that I reach for it - and I can eat it by the teaspoon!

The high salt content would suggest that this food is not 'healthy' - but I have mixed feelings about the demonisation of salt. So long as you do not cover your food with it, and use it by the spoonful in your cooking, a little salt is good. We couldn't live without out!

A Sri Lankan friend of mine went to the doctor complaining of tiredness. He diagnosed lack of salt. And when my 94 year old mother comes to stay, she positively ladles the salt on her food. She's as fit as a flea. What's going on?

Summary: Marmite for the nervous system