Marmite is the missing ingredient

If the Danes do not want to eat Marmite they should send it to the Middle East

It is odd to deny people the liberty to have what they like for breakfast. The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration has already prevented the advertising of Horlicks, Ovaltine and Farley’s Rusks. Now the future of Marmite is threatened because its manufacturers have not applied for the licence that is needed for products fortified with added vitamins.

The Danish Immigration Minister, Søren Pind, recently said that foreigners should assimilate or leave. They may now do so as the news has not gone down well among Denmark’s expatriate community, many of whom have contemplated sending home for contraband supplies.

The Danish authorities might like to consider that the consumption of Marmite and the idea of liberty could be more closely connected than they realise. The link was, unaccountably, absent from President Obama’s recent speech and Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress. But 

as Edward de Bono told the Foreign and Commonwealth Office a decade ago, Marmite is the missing ingredient in the peace process for the Middle East.

The theory goes like this. A lack of zinc tends to make men belligerent. Most people get their zinc from bread. But, in countries that eat mostly unleavened bread — such as pita flatbread — the men are very low in yeast and therefore, according to Professor de Bono, more likely to be aggressive. The solution is obvious: to import a foodstuff which can make good the deficiency that comes from too much unleavened bread. The solution is, to put it in a word, Marmite.

So, whether you love it or whether you hate it, any unsold jars of Marmite could have a use. Send them to the Middle East at once.