OK so it’s true. I LOVE thyme but is that important? Yes. It’s delicious and adds a glorious flavour to my food. Is that important in any other way? No. It’s not important because most of the so-called health benefits of thyme are not proven, actually why don't we just skip the most and say all. No. They are not. Anyone can claim anything they like about food as long as they’re not caught in the dirty business of doing it while making a product that’s involved. Pseudo-scientists with agendas to push claim any and every health benefit without a shred of evidence.

So let’s say I’m a manufacturer of something with thyme in it. I grease the palm of someone who is prepared to make a lot of noise about the health benefits of my product and then wait to rake in the cash as my product sells by the truckload.

As a scientist, I abhor that. To me, there is only one way to claim a health benefit from food and that’s to do a large-scale, double blind placebo scientific survey over a significant length of time. Are these ever done for foodstuffs? The answer to that question is very, very rarely so rarely you stand more of a chance of finding a hen with a full set of gnashers. You see the economics just don’t stack up. Who would pay? Trials of this nature cost millions of pounds and let’s face it, would you invest millions of pounds doing a test that then any Tom, Dick or Harry could use because you can't patent thyme (or turmeric or garlic or...you get my drift)? No, of course you wouldn’t.

So next time someone tells you that thyme is good for blood pressure – say “prove it”. Then laugh in the face of the person who has made the statement because I’m as sure as I can be that there is no way that they can.

You'll be able to tell I did this in a fit of pique because of the terrible grammar and punctuation!