Popular US Breakfast Cereal is a Drug: FDA

by Sreeraman on  May 13, 2009 at 1:32 PM General Health News
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Popular US breakfast cereal Cheerios is a drug, at least if the claims made on the label by its manufacturer General Mills are anything to go by, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said.

"Based on claims made on your product's label, we have determined that your Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug," the FDA said in a letter to General Mills which was posted on the federal agency's website Tuesday.

Cheerios labels claim that eating the cereal can help lower bad cholesterol, a risk factor for coronary heart disease, by four percent in six weeks.

Citing a clinical study, the product labels also claim that eating two servings a day of Cheerios helps to reduce bad cholesterol when eaten as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, the FDA letter says.

Those claims indicate that Cheerios, said by General Mills to be the best-selling cereal in the United States, is intended to be used to lower cholesterol and prevent, lessen or treat the disease hypercholesterolemia, and to treat and prevent coronary heart disease.

"Because of these intended uses, the product is a drug," the FDA concluded in its letter.

Not only that, but Cheerios is a new drug because it has not been "recognized as safe and effective for use in preventing or treating hypercholesterolemia or coronary heart disease," the FDA said.

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If you have a question about health related issues, you can now post it in our Ask An Expert section on our community website Medwonders.com and get answers from our panel of experts.

M.E.Welch(Guest)

05/14/2009

This is typical of the FDA's overzealousness in protecting the health of the American public. It makes one wonder if they have run out of really constructive things to do and are looking for "make-work projects" to protect their jobs in the health abuse arm of the American society. I suspect that they laughed themselves silly before attacking the labeling of Cheerios, but their ill-advised and less than intelligent attempts to control the food industry are the really dangerous and sad part of the story. Final word? Don't expect their efforts to get better, but rather more repressive of the freedom to seek and share good health.
MEW, MPH, DSc,
Asst. Prof. SYU, Seoul, Korea




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