Marmite has been causing arguments round the breakfast table for decades but it might soon be part of the Department of Health’s prescription for dodging an early grave.

It emerged this week that niacin, or vitamin B3, is effective at fighting MRSA. Marmite contains buckets of the stuff, albeit not quite enough to make smearing a jar of it on your body a surefire way to beat the bug.

The news won’t sit well with haters of the divisive spread. But at least you can pretend those smears on your hostpial sheets are just Marmite.