DFMB (Deep Fried Mars® Bars) research update

A 2014 paper published in the Scottish Medical Journal elucidated (for the first time) the acute effects of a Deep Fried Mars® Bars (DFMBs) on brain vasculature. Since then, research involving DFMBs has not ceased. A 2016 study from Dr Christine Knight at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, has (again, for the first time) examined coverage of DFMB stories in the Daily Record/Sunday Mail and the Scottish Sun/Sun on Sunday newspapers.

“Analysis showed that both newspapers clearly associated the DFMB with Scotland. Further, both newspapers portrayed the DFMB and the broader “deep-fried” Scottish diet stereotype ambivalently (mixed positive and negative associations). However, the Daily Record actively criticised the DFMB stereotype much more often than did the Scottish Sun. These findings suggest that the Scottish population encounters different messages in the press about food and nutrition from people elsewhere in the UK, and that these messages vary depending on choice of media in Scotland.”

See: Negative stereotypes of the Scottish diet: A qualitative analysis of deep-fried Mars bar references in bestselling newspapers in Scotland, 2011–14, in the journal Appetite, Volume 103, Pages 1-458 (1 August 2016)

Photo credit: ‘unknown’ @Wikipedia

Research research: Martin Gardiner