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The Food and Drug Administration says the promises of decreased cholesterol and heart disease prevention on Cheerios boxes mean that America’s best-selling cereal is not actually food, but a drug.

From the FDA’s warning letter:

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. Specifically, your Cheerios® product bears the following claims [on] its label:

• “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.”

The FDA goes on to say that General Mills’s Whole Grain Nation website makes “unauthorized health claims” like “Heart-healthy diets rich in whole grain foods, can reduce the risk of heart disease,” and “Including whole grain as part of a healthy diet may … [h]elp reduce the risk of certain types of cancers. Regular consumption of whole grains as part of, a low-fat diet reduces the risk for some cancers, especially cancers of the stomach and colon.”

It’s unclear why the FDA went after Cheerios and not, say, the roughly five zillion other food products out there that promise to help you fight heart disease, cholesterol, obesity and all the rest. Maybe they’re drawing a line in the sand and sending a message to the food industry. Maybe some FDA bigwig owns a lot of Kellogg’s stock. Either way, until this is resolved, whole grain Cheerios are off the market, and that’s got to hurt General Mills big time. If you’re in the U.S. and are addicted to this particular drug, you may want to head to the grocery store and stock up — if the company doesn’t change its labelling in the next 7 days, the FDA could seize all offending cereal boxes across America.

And shouldn’t it be “Cheerios are clinically proven to lower cholesterol”?

Thanks, B!

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