Cheerios and cholesterol and rice krispies and immunity
The food and drug administration (FDA) warned General Mills about the content of its ads for cheerios. The warning le tter that the agency sent to general mills focused on the company’s claims that its cereal, cheerios, was “clinically proven to help lower cholesterol”. The ads also claimed that the cereal could reduce bad cholesterol by 4% in 6 weeks. General Mills indicated that it has used the claim in its ads for more than 2 years and that the clinical study supporting the claim is very strong. However, the FDA says that government regulations prohibit such claims for anything other than drugs and that Cheerios would have to be approved as a drug in order to make the claims. The FDA indicated that it wants to keep a bright line between what companies can say about a product versus what it an say about a drug. The FDA and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also pointed to the following analysis of the studies that were used as the basis for the GM claims: But the average LDL(bad) cholesterol of the Cheerios eaters fell by only 7 points (from 160 to 153). In fact, a 7point fall would be a decent drop from just one food, but it was actually 3 servings of 1 food. On average, participants are 450 calories’ worth of cereal a day ( 3 cups of Cheerios plus 1.1/2 cups of fat-free milk_. That’s a big chunk of the average American’s 2,200-calorie diet, especially for such a modest payoff. And it would take even more than 450 calories to get the same LDL drop from Honey Nut or Berry Burst Cheerios (both of which contain less soluble fiber and more sugar than regular Cheerios). The GM ads features Cheerios eaters who appear to be celebrating more than just a 7point drop in cholesterol. One commentator commented wryly that those in the ads appear to have conquered heart disease. Other companies have been facing