No wonder Cheerios are so cheery......

via AlterNet:



Cheerios Are a Drug? FDA's Surprising Letter to General Mills

Agence France Presse. Posted May 13, 2009.

FDA to General Mills: "We have determined that is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug."



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. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/139990/cheerios_are_a_drug_fda%27s_surprising_letter_to_general_mills_/

You know it.

The FDA will be labeling your product as a drug.

Same goes for those who sell scuba gear -- if they make that claim that breathing their air while underwater will prevent suffocation, the air will be classified as a drug.

And if you fall in love, you're totally screwn: we already know that "love is a drug".

All foods are either healthful or they're not. Oats/oat bran are well known for their ability to lower cholesterol. This doesn't mean they work as well or as quickly as pharmaceuticals. Oranges and lemons and limes contain Vit C, which is well known to help increase immunity, are citrus fruits drugs too?

They have claimed it lowers cholesterol for many years, so it must be a drug, too!

edit: I gotta go get me a prescription for breakfast, so I'll see y'all in a while. Don't wait up, cuz I'll need one for lunch and dinner too!

This is a hugh discumbobulation! Series!

hard habit to break!

My breakfast consist of either a bowl of oatmeal or a bowl of bran flakes with blueberries, bananas, and raspberries.

:rofl:

Good Lord...

who hated all cereal. My mom told me I refused it from I was six months old.

I've got a whole cupboard full of the stuff because I keep trying to eat it since it's supposed to be good for you. If it happens to be granola it usually ends up as cookies, bran ends up in muffins and the rest goes to the birds. Yeccchhhhh.

People are eating Cheerios thinking that they are getting drug-like protection against cardio-vascular disease.

Of COURSE oats are good for you. But they aren't a drug. This is just another form of the old corporate snake-oil con game.

There is a fundamental difference between saying "eating right will help you stay healthy" and "eating Cheerios will control your cholesterol and LDL levels."

What makes "snake oil" isn't that it's from a snake so much as that snakes in suits sell it.

--d!

hypercholesterolemia meds. Those who would are most likely not seeing a doctor, having their blood taken or buying meds.


Sometimes the "snake oil" meme is just that, a meme and it's getting really old.

The uninsured poor who can't get proper care could easily interpret this as a cheap and viable alternative (being the word) for real medication.

My issue is in calling cheerios a medication or having it regulated by the FDA. If they find that Cheerios does help lower cholesterol then there should be nothing the FDA needs to be in on. It would be nice if Education on diet as part of a regimen to reduce and maintain good cholesterol levels were put in place.

My point was that at the very least, the person who eats cheerios may have a better outcome than someone who eats eggs and bacon for breakfast. And those who are not aware of the need for meds for hyperlipidemia/hypercholesterolemia are not going to a doctor or buying meds to start with so at least they can eat properly. I agree it should not be in place of but part of the treatment but I don't think the FDA should do more than ask GM to better educate the population on high cholesterol.

... "a cheap and viable alternative" to medication for most people, but it's a little more complicated than which breakfast cereal you choose, you need to look at ALL the foods you eat.

People should be seeing a doctor if they have high cholesterol, not just eating cheerios and thinking everything will get better. Soon water bottles could say "drink this brand and lose 5 lbs a month!"

People really need to do more and exercise and think about what they're eating, because eathing any healthy cereal (vs. whatever alternatives they use) will help lower cholesterol. I think that Kashi and Special K both realize this and were probably pissed that Cheerios got away with it so long.

Controlling our food and water is a sure fire way to keep us in line and line their pockets.
Does this mean we will now need a prescription for food? I can see this as opening a whole new line of "business" and careers. You could go to school to be a Physician of Food...we could call them Pof's or poof for short. :P haha
I guess you would have to first make an appointment and then the Dr would have to determine that food would or could help you stay healthy. :P rofl
I think those chem trails they have been spraying us with are full of idiot oil or something..what else could be making the world go so bonkers?

They're not trying to "control" foods. They just want GM to reword their advertising statement so it doesn't "trick" an uninsured heart patient that Cheerio's can be substituted for real medication.

a drug that you have to get a prescription for?

diet and adjust accordingly.

When I was a kid my mom would get fresh cream from a nearby dairy farmer...not the runny stuff you get in the store...but the really thick kind...I used to fold a dollop or two into my Cherrios and nail it with sugar...

I would eat all the floaters then attack the Cherrio cream log...

Now people would swear you would die instantly if you ate that.

They have even admitted publicly that they are out to ban everything. They are starting with supplements, vitamins, and everything the drug companies can't corner the market on. They will then try to regulate whole foods and ultimately, even threaten to penalize you for anything you take--even what you give your kids as a caring parent (from breast milk on, I assume). Obviously, anything that can be claimed to have a health benefit will eventually fall under their purview, including exercise equipment, gym memberships, sports.

It's asinine, but because no one believes it could happen, there's too little outrage to stop it. The FDA is firmly in the pocket of the health care industry. Crap food and the marketing of disease are the only way these people think they can get rich, and they are going to do everything in their power to keep us all under their thumb.

I, for one, am glad of this decision. Not everyone is educated enough to tell that this is not guaranteed. How many are frustrated at all the weight-loss fad claim?

You know those disclaimers: "Result's not typical", "For entertainment purposes only", etc.

but that doesn't mean I'm not right. Obviously, the fact that it seems far-fetched is what makes them able to sneak it through one ruling at a time. Mark my words, there's an agenda there and it has nothing to do with protecting the public health and everything to do with greed. They've already targeted supplements (e.g. B6 and red yeast rice, the natural form of lovastatin) so that drug companies can give them brand names and sell them as controlled substances. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Call it paranoid if it makes you feel superior; I call it a gut feeling that shouldn't be ignored.

and now they're doing a turnaround.