The new ‘Brain Food’ range at M&S is….interesting
I recently published a short article about the new ‘Yay Mushrooms’ range at M&S, which basically consists of a few drinks with added Lion’s Mane and Reishi. I liked the thinking behind that range and the fact that clearly some serious thinking had gone into the creation of the products, but I was frustrated that there was no information about how much of each mushroom was the products.
Another range that has recently been introduced at M&S is called ‘Brain Food’. Firstly, I really don’t like the name - it just makes me think of brains, and that’s not appetising. But what I’m more confused about is the range itself. The products within the new Brain Food range include everything from granola to peanut butter, all of which have apparently been made with ingredients that make them beneficial for your brain. Some of these products look great, but when I started checking the ingredients of a few of the products I was a bit confused.
It says on the M&S website that all of the products in the Brain Food range are high in 'brain health-supporting nutrients that many of us lack in our diets: omega-3 (DHA), iron, zinc, iodine, folate, zinc, and vitamin B12.'
This all sounds good, but I checked a few of the products in the range and some of them didn't seem to be particularly high in these nutrients. For example, yes the Brain Food granola contains 13g of iron per 100g, but as I wrote about previously, Weetabix Banana contains 12g of iron per 100g, and nobody at Weetabix is trying to claim that it's a brain-enhancing cereal!
But most interestingly, the Brain Food granola only contains 1.7µg of Vitamin B12 per 100g. As I highlighted in my guide about cereals that are high in Vitamin B12, Weetos contain 2.1µg of Vitamin B12 per 100g.
Then you've got the Oat Of The Blue drink, which sounds really tasty -it's made with a blend of oat and coconut milk, and then has added spirulina which gives it the blue colour. According to M&S, this drink is high in iodine and vitamin B12.
With 0.98µg of Vitamin B12 per 100ml, it is quite high in Vitamin B12. But I've featured drinks on this website which are even higher in Vitamin B12, like the zero sugar XITE Energy drink I featured in this guide which contains 1.09μg Vitamin B12 per 100ml.
The nut butter and kefir look a bit better in terms of nutrients, especially the nut butter because it's made with seeds which add more zinc than you'll find in a typical peanut butter.
The Super Smoothie is made with guava, which is a great source of Vitamin C but not really the nutrients that M&S claims are good for your brain.
I'm not writing this range off immediately (I'd be foolish to write off M&S), but I'm just a little disappointed at how low in nutrients some of the products in the range are.
Finn H
Finn is the editor of You Well and has been writing about travel, health, and more for over 10 years.