In a letter to Cheerios’ manufacturer General Mills, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that the wording on the cereal’s box suggests it is intended for use in preventing or treating heart disease by lowering cholesterol, claims only FDA-approved drugs are allowed to make. They also pointed out that federal regulations do not permit companies to quantify the benefit of their foods, which General Mills does when it claims an average 4 percent reduction in bad cholesterol. “We certainly don’t have any issues with the safety of Cheerios,” Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said in an interview. “We just believe that the labeling on this particular product has gone beyond what the science supports.”
The agency says it does allow whole-grain products to carry certain claims about reducing heart disease and cancer risk, but they must state explicitly that such foods need to be part of diets that are also low in saturated fats and cholesterol and high in fiber-rich fruits and vegetables as well as grains. “The claim on your website leaves out any reference to fruits and vegetables, to fiber content, and to keeping the levels of saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet low,” the FDA letter said. “Therefore, your claim does not convey that all these factors together reduce the risk of heart disease and does not enable the public to understand the significance of the claim in the context of total daily diet.”
"It's fairly obvious to me why the Obama administration is going after Cheerios over possible deceptive advertising," says the Deadenders blog. "Babies love them more then him."
"This is the kind of irritating, intrusive nonsense that makes people weary of their government and every smarmy bureaucratic microbe in it," writes David Crocker of the Behind Blue Lines blog.
...Never mind that Obama almost certainly had no idea that his FDA was planning to go after Cheerios.
Food seems to be a common theme among crazy conservatives. For them, wholesome, "American" foods are a-OK. Eurocommie foods are right out. "Washington raised ciggie taxes to pay for SCHIP expansion and are [sic] gearing up to raise soda taxes to pay for Obamacare," writes the reliably nutty Michelle Malkin. "No vice is safe from the health police. Dijon mustard and arugula exempted, of course."
"So I guess now the Communist-in-Chief will declare a War on Cereal," rants Ed Anger of the Weekly World News, proving the increasing irrelevance of old-school parody. You can't tell it from the real thing.
...Note, by the way that none of these critics actually addresses the substance of the FDA's argument.
But then, do these toxic troglodytes ever base an argument on substance?
