Cheerios is a mainstay breakfast cereal and is a favorite of many from toddlers to adults for its oaty taste and knowledge that it is a healthy breakfast food. Well, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) isn’t so keen about the recent General Mills Inc. ads on Cheerios boxes that state that the cereal can “lower your cholesterol 4% in six weeks.”
On May 5th, the FDA gave General Mills Inc. a warning saying that it “seriously violated” federal law with its health claims.
General Mills spokesman Tom Forsythe says that they’ve been using this particular ad for more than 2 years and cites a study showing Cheerios to be part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol.
Stephen Sundlof, the director of the FDA’s food-safety center disagrees saying, “We try to make a bright line here between what can be said about a drug and what can be said about a food. The FDA also wants General Mills to clarify the statements made about Cheerios reducing cancer and heart disease risk.
They state that, “General Mills must promptly correct the violations outline in the letter or the agency could take enforcement action.”
So what do you think? Does this make you not want to eat another bowl of Cheerios again?
Eek, not good news that it took the FDA over two years to figure this out. Makes you wonder what else they’re missing.
Cheerios has been promoting that add for quite some time now and the message I always got from them is that Cheerios “helps” lower your cholesterol. The message is plain and simple, do we really need a dummy warning for that? come on now, what’s next? do we have to clarify that Count Chocula has sugar in it and excess sugar can cause weight gain and diabetes?
I have to disagree. I started eating similar cereal everyday. The truth is that if you eat the cereal you are more likely to lower cholesterol because you are eating it instead of other more popular breakfast choices. I have been eating cereal every morning instead of eating the eggs, cheese and chorizo omelets that my wife loved making me every day.
THe FDA should be more strict.. but the truth is, after a whole bowl of cheerios, you won’t be hungry for a second breakfast loaded with bad crap.