If you can't trust a Cheerios box...

Those toasted Os may be crunchy. They may go great with milk. You could go so far as to say they're part of a nutritious breakfast. But perhaps promoting them as a drug that can lower cholesterol is going too far.

That's what the Food and Drug Administration says the familiar yellow box does.

In a warning letter sent to the chairman of General Mills (maker of the beloved breakfast classic) and posted on the agency's website, the FDA says:

"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 because the product is intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease."

The agency takes special issue with these claims:  

* "you can Lower Your Cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks." 

* "Did you know that in just 6 weeks Cheerios can reduce bad cholesterol by an average of 4 percent? Cheerios is ... clinically proven to lower cholesterol. A clinical study showed that eating two 1 1/2 cup servings daily of Cheerios cereal reduced bad cholesterol when eaten as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol."

What effect such a letter will have remains to be seen. But it didn't do much to hurt General Mills stock as this Bloomberg story reports.

Here's more on the nutritional merits of whole grains from the Harvard School of Public Health. And if you appreciate context, you'll like the part about industrialized roller mills.

-- Tami Dennis

Photo: Cereal isn't supposed to say such things. Drugs can. But not cereal.

Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Comments

[KSDallas]

I have seen many other products advertised similarly. Yogurt is a prime example - they have one out now that guarantees it will regulate your digestive system. Why isn't Yoplait getting a letter, too? This is a waste of tax payer money and federal services.

[UnDallas]

This is not a waste of taxpayer resources.
There are a ton of people changing their cereal choice because of some unproven bs that General Mills has written. They need to be raked over the coals for lying to the unsuspecting customers.
Maybe Yoplait should too and maybe they'll come later..

[Latigo]

Cheerios is STILL better than all those sugar laden kiddie cereals and what is called 'breakfast' at fast food restaurants!

[cyberbian]

The FDA is not disputing the study or the claim.

They are on the move to classify food stuffs as drugs because they effect you health. If they effect health, they are a drug. That is their claim.

Every thing you eat effects your health. Every thing you eat is a drug.

Do you have a prescription for that whole wheat bagle?

I thought not! You're under arrest.

If they get away with this B.S. We will all die of malnutrition under their wise hand.

[RR]

Anything to sell, sell, sell. Called 'pushing the envelope', a 'gray area', 'stretching the truth'... Cynical, yes. And no surprise. That statement on the box is a blanket, abridged, purported fact... perhaps not even reproducable without tight 'clinical' control. At least the FDA decided to slap their wrist, for what that's worth. It does sound like a remedy, treatment, drug.

[Scarborian]

I think the FDA needs some help here. High Cholesterol is a symptom, not a disease. Besides, General Mills did the groundwork and proved its case. The accusation is not that they're telling lies, if they were lying then there would be good legal case against them. The FDA is just acting as the muscle for its friends in the pharmaceutical industry who want us to pay for prescription drugs rather than get the same effect by simply eating a healthier diet.
A recent Kaiser study showed you could control type-2 diabetes by switching to healthier foods, drugs are not necessary. Is the FDA going to try to bully Kaiser too?

[Euphony]

cyberbrian, I think you're way off point with your post. The FDA is not regulating Cheerios, they're telling General Mills that they cannot advertise their product in a misleading way as if it were a drug. It is absolutely absurd that you would think we are being led down some slippery slope where a whole wheat bagel is cause for a prescription, and just as absurd that you'd think the FDA is trying to regulate Cheerios as a drug.

Frankly, there's a LOT of false advertising that goes on the packaging for our foods, and I'm surprised at how much gets by. Do you really want your food packaging to make less-than-honest claims? Most people hardly know what is even in their food products let alone the health implications of eating the foods they do. Quick: What are Cheerios made out of again?

[frostedflakes]

You mean people were really believing the ad? C'mon no one was really being that brainwashed were they? It's a product they want us to buy; why would we listen to any claims to begin with? ...*sigh* Think for yourselves people.

[madhawk]

"This is not a waste of taxpayer resources.
There are a ton of people changing their cereal choice because of some unproven bs that General Mills has written. They need to be raked over the coals for lying to the unsuspecting customers.
Maybe Yoplait should too and maybe they'll come later.."

Okay, First of all, this kind of shoot first ask questions later attitude is COUNTER PRODUCTIVE.
Second, they are not making eggregious claims with their product. Cheerios might, in fact, help with cholesterol. The only issue the FDA has with it is that it is making a drug-like claim.
Third, it IS, in fact, a waste of resources, as they could be focusing on more pressing issues like drugs that are on the market that are killing people. Ever known anyone who died from Cheerios? (BTW, Diabetes Melitis II doesn't count because you would have to add sugar to cheerios for it to cause that).

Bottom line is that the FDA is freaking out about every little claim because it failed miserably to police the content with all the drug ads that came out recently (Vioxx, Yaz, Celebrex, etc.). I would think that hiring an actor to pose as a doctor making erroneous medical claims is a lot more serious than posting researched material on a product's box.
Maybe we should be raking politicians over coals who made false promises to mislead voters before we go over people who posted researched content on their (quite tried and tested) products.

[johnny lipitor]

The reason FDA sent General Mills a warning letter is very simple...by claiming that Cheerios can lower cholesterol, GM has made a health claim that must, by law, be backed up by controlled clinical trials conducted under an FDA approved investigational protocol. Since elevated cholesterol is (contrary to one poster's erroneous observation) a recognized medical disorder, claiming that your product can lower cholesterol is, in fact, a health claim, and your product must be regulated as a drug (i.e., a product intended to "prevent, mitigate, and/or treat disease").

Activia yogurt, on the other hand, is marketed for the purpose of treating a dietary symptom (irregularity), for which a multitude of other dietary products already exists. I am not a physician, but, to my knowledge, occasional irregularity does not qualify as a disease state, though it could be indicative of one.

[Nate]

If the letter has any effect, then it is a good use of taxpayer money.

For the critics, how much taxpayer money do you believe when into writing one letter and posting it on a public website? Really difficult to call this a waste of resources.

Plus, someone has to look out for those people who believe what they hear on t.v. commercials and read on the world's most popular breakfast ceral boxes.

[Nayely]

After reading this, I couldn’t help but go to my pantry and grab the box of Cheerios! I took a good look at it and honestly it doesn’t look anything like a drug. I think that by saying that Cheerios is a drug, the FDA is looking into it way too much. If it really is then why is it that all the other things we eat aren’t drugs? Everything from fruit and granola bars are supposed to prevent sickness and you don’t see drug labels all over them. I think the FDA should just continue keeping our food in good condition and stop bothering the drug dealers of Cheerios. Oops! I meant to say the producers of Cheerios.
-nayely

[JP]

Huh? For a breakfast cereal we suddenly have "SCIENCE" that can debunk General Mills claims, but begin to refute the claims of global warming and suddenly that same science is nowhere to be found. Unbelievable.

[Sage]

Can see it now. People skulking around in alleys, asking nefarious types as to where one can "score" a box of Cheerios. Can see the FDA goon squads arresting people for illegal cereal use. More customers for the private prison system. This will certainly help Barbara Bush's stock portfolio bottom line now, won't it? She owns a healthy share of the private prison stock, and brags about it.

[Roger Waters]

OK, this is a classic example of what happened with the CAFTA Bill, (Central American Free Trade Agreement). It is called CODEX. The WTO is behind all this, and it just simply is to get you to go spend hundreds of dollars seeing a doctor, then spending hundreds of more dollars to get medication that does really no good in treating sicknesses or ailments, but does regulate them.

It's all about the almighty buck, that goes from your wallet to big Pharma. CODEX, better restudy that bill. It's hitting us now.

[dance mom]

What's amazing to me is the fact that every packaged food item has to submitted to the FDA experts for "label content approval" before they can be sold to consumers. That Cheerios claim was "approved" by the same FDA that is now denying the claim! These FDA experts have been bought & paid for by big pharma to push the drugs that are addicting and killing people. The underlying issue is that they are meddling in keeping people addicted to the drugs that are killing them, all the while they are debunking the fact that "Good foods" can help keep you healthy. Next thing they will be saying that an "Apple a day doesn't keep the doctor away"

[Stephen G. Barone]

Every day I’m accosted by two or three advertisements in various media, each proffering some ointment or pill that will allegedly transmogrify my standard issue private part into a gargantuan missile of pulsing, throbbing libidic energy of near-nuclear dimension. Yet, the government is going after Cheerios for false advertising. Read more at www.halfjoking.net

[Leslie Shider]

The FDA is just demonizing our good nutrition. I fell in love with Cherrios, Corn Flakes, Life, Total, shredded wheat and oatmeal! Whole grains have an excellent source of fiber!
It doesn't contain a drug, but the FDA wants to believe that it contains a drug. That is absurd. I am so ticked of how the gov't treated us.

[Farty McCrablice]

"Doctor, I need some help. Could you prescribe me some Cheerios? I hear good things about it helping to lower cholesterol."