Video: FDA declares Cheerios a drug?
posted at 2:55 pm on June 19, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
The war on drugs has opened a new front: the breakfast table. The FDA, under orders to tighten enforcement on health-related claims for food products, informed General Mills that their promotion of Cheerios transforms it from a food to a drug when they claim the oat-based cereal can help lower cholesterol:
President Obama isn’t just rewriting rules regulating the environment and the financial markets — he is also going after the food industry.
Target and example No. 1: Cheerios.
“Based on claims made on your product’s label,” the FDA said in a letter to manufacturer General Mills, “we have determined (Cheerios) 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.”
If the government’s enforcement action against Cheerios were to hold up, the cereal would be pulled from grocery shelves and consumers would need a prescription to buy a box of those little oats.
That’s unlikely, but experts say the message is clear: There is a new sheriff in town and when it comes to false, misleading and exaggerated labeling, you had better clean up your act.
This is simply silly. Congress just gave the FDA authority over tobacco, and their first target is Cheerios? I can understand an effort to get General Mills to disclose that they funded the studies that reached the conclusions they advertise, but threatening to categorize Cheerios as a drug is about as good a parody of overreaching regulation as anything we could gin up in the blogosphere.
Barack Obama liked to remind us that we’re in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, although he’s ixnayed the Epression-day talk lately, since his policies seem to be making things worse. Maybe we can focus our attention and our resources on helping companies expand and employ people other than defense lawyers.
Update: Michelle was talking about cereal czars last month. Fox just got around to it, apparently.
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Serenity Now!!!
For you Seinfeld fans!
proudteadrinker on June 20, 2009 at 12:40 AM
Megyn just wanted to get that little “my husband eats Cheerios every day” line just to let us know she is married and break our hearts – all over again.
Mr_Magoo on June 20, 2009 at 1:15 AM
I’m glad Megyn is on the side of the angels. Sorry, libs, eat your heart out.
OT: I saw Geri Thompson on Hannity this past week. She’s dynamite. Liberal women just don’t compare. Sorry, Joan Walsh, stick with the bitter-hag routine.
BuckeyeSam on June 20, 2009 at 1:39 AM
Common sense is dead it seems.
Miss Molly on June 20, 2009 at 1:54 AM
so is my local grocery store now a drug dealer?
PappaMac on June 20, 2009 at 3:00 AM
Oh boy. I got a giant box of Cheerios from Costco…….now the DEA is gonna break down my door and haul me away for possession for distribution.
infidel4life on June 20, 2009 at 3:33 AM
Reference years of nutritionist studies since cholesterol became the food fad rage of the 1970s; the public does not need to rely only on General Mills findings. Obama’s meddling based upon his administration’s own lack of animal science and nutrition expertise.
OBAMA WANTS TO TAX FOOD. OBAMA WANTS TO TAX OUR FOOD PURCHASES THAT AT PRESENT ARE PROTECTED FROM TAXATION. OBAMA IS MEDDLING WITH OUR NATION’S FOOD CHAIN, BEGINNING WITH CHEERIOS AND GENERAL FOODS.
Did General Foods fail the Obama litmus test requiring substantial campaign support prior to Obama’s election?
Do the Obama’s want to crush the price of oat commodities in favor of another grain on the stock market? Wheat, Soy, Rice, Corn, Barley, Flax?
Oats have qualities to soothe skin (intestinal lining) irritations. Not all grains are alike. Oat Bran does benefit human digestion, and oatmeal does provide the body with healthy carbohydrates for energy.
FOOD IS NUTRITION. The FDA has determined that anything of recognized nutritious value is cause to be identified as a drug to be regulated by the government. Obama’s administration has already created legislation regulating personal gardening. Anything grown outside the auspices of Obama’s regulators will be illegal to eat, share, barter or sell.
All consumer products derived directly from Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, Dairy, Eggs and Meat are to be regulated by Obama’s FDA and taxes will be levied upon consumers FOR OUR OWN GOOD.
Meanwhile, imported foods will not be regulated, even if they claim they are regulated.
maverick muse on June 20, 2009 at 6:19 AM
Isn’t it funny, though,, that the first food attacked just happens to be in the form of little “o’s?”
One can only wonder.
JellyToast on June 20, 2009 at 6:51 AM
Obama is strong arming General Mills to plaster Obama’s face on the Cheerio box and relabel the boxes: Cheer Obama, “toasty O’s that care for you”.
Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussel Sprouts, Cauliflower and legumes have nutritive value that combats cancer. I’ve always chuckled that the gaseous foods alleviate the noxious elements from the body while their chemical essence works through the bloodstream according to its properties on cancer cells.
Obama will levy highest taxes on the most beneficial foods to the human body.
Taken to the extreme where Leftists go, universal health care would implant monitors of our body to tax and fine the rate we intake oxygen, drink, food, drugs, AND the rate we emit, expel or excrete anything.
/asshats
maverick muse on June 20, 2009 at 6:54 AM
The internet got constipated? Comments lagging…
maverick muse on June 20, 2009 at 7:00 AM
What a crock of bs! Half the commencials on television claim some sort of health benefits. oblameless will control every aspect of your life. Thanks for voting this tyrant into office.
We have the nerve to criticize congress for not reading the legislation they pass, yet we don’t demand that this tool be vetted prior to the election.
We get the government we deserve, so swallow hard sheeple!
mossberg500 on June 20, 2009 at 7:03 AM
Let’s see…in addition to the 20 or so “czars” we presently have, thanks to President Perfect, I believe we need a few more:
A Tuxedo Czar, to oversee tux rentals and correct fit
A Tax Czar, to oversee Democrats filing of income taxes
A Teleprompter Czar, to oversee double-credit college classes in this subject
A Media Czar, to oversee what is said on television and in print
A Czar Czar, to oversee all the czars
A BS Czar, who will be the busiest czar of all
bradley11 on June 20, 2009 at 7:36 AM
yeah ok Megan. Your beautiful and smart, no man can touch you, now get off my friggin tv and get me a real news anchor thats bites like a pit bull. I’m sick of candy coated news.
They want to make herbal remedies prescription too by the way. Think your vote doesnt count ? hmmm?
johnnyU on June 20, 2009 at 8:55 AM
Ditto. Ohh Magoo, you’ve done it again….
scituate_tgr on June 20, 2009 at 9:07 AM
I’m having. Cheerios for breakfast. Keep an eye out for me and I’ll do the same for you.
ladyingray on June 20, 2009 at 9:22 AM
Snack on a stick of butter. Great line, but doing so could turn me into an anorexic.
MSGTAS on June 20, 2009 at 9:39 AM
The FDA could start regulating all food; Normal food is known to be a mood elevator! And humor and satire could also be regulated due to laughter!
What’s so funny? They’re serious!
Cybergeezer on June 20, 2009 at 9:53 AM
If memory serves(but then again when does it?), this was also a story on Fox a month ago, after Michelle Malkin made it a story, but it probably only aired during Fox and Friends.
Stickeehands on June 20, 2009 at 10:15 AM
Is fasting a drug because it reduces fat.
csdeven on June 20, 2009 at 10:44 AM
I’m eating Cheerios as I am writing (well actually I am eating between sentences). I applaud a cereal company that can find TRUE healthclaims for its products. Hope General Mills doesn’t back down. Will agree with the FDA however, that false health claims should be eliminated. But my real concern is that General Mills will become Government Mills, like General Motors became Government Motors.
Christian Conservative on June 20, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Good thing I don’t go in for all that hype. My parents lived into their mid 80′s and everything they ate was fried. Once oleo was the answer because butter would kill you. Now, DON’T eat oleo!!! The liberals want us (conservatives) to “stay out of their bedrooms!” Well, trust me all of you liberals. With what you do in your bedrooms, I don’t want anything to do with that. Your perverted lifestyles are sickening to any one with a brain. You are all dolts. Die young if you want. But now. Please. Be on guard. GET OUT OF MY WHOLE LIFE !!!!!! Don’t you dare tell me what to eat, drive, where to live, who to help, how much to help, what pseudo-science religion to adhere to, how much I should weigh, what doctor to visit and how much to pay him; who should pay him. Get out of my pantry, kitchen, garage, basement, backyard, out of my job, my bosses job. If I want to kill gofers, cockroaches, liberal communist traitors, spiders, space aliens, or any other thing I want that needs dispatching, don’t get in my way. The freedom to be, think, like, dislike, at all at any time or in any way is what I’m after and what I insist on with in the law. Now. Back off,,,,,,,,,or your gonna get it. Soon.
Signed,
American Patriots all over the United States of America.
DKEN on June 20, 2009 at 2:23 PM
So, if General Mills is smart their next ad will say “The Federal Government under the Obama Administration has informed us that we can no long tell you that Cheerios are good for you. They think marketing oats a having health benefits related to cholesterol somehow changes oats to a drug. So in keeping with that governmental decision we are now offering cheerios for sale only as breakfast cereal. You will have to decide for yourself if your Mom was right that eating oats are good for you, or if you prefer to think of them as drugs as Obama does.”
MikeA on June 20, 2009 at 5:16 PM
Sniff. Smells like freedom. I wonder sometimes about life imitating art. Demolition Man choices from Dennis Leary.
Blacksmith8 on June 20, 2009 at 5:57 PM
Must be a real slow news day. Rush Limbaugh, along with FOX, reported this I think three weeks ago. If it was the Lexington Herald Leader newspaper it would be breaking news, but in adult journalism this is just fluff to fill in the holes.
RobertInLexington on June 20, 2009 at 8:00 PM
Oh no.
Cereal Czar is coming.
RobertInLexington on June 20, 2009 at 8:01 PM
Since when is cholesterol a disease?
LarryG on June 20, 2009 at 10:16 PM
Oh, yeah. How about all of those poor horses at risk?
LarryG on June 20, 2009 at 10:17 PM
I’m stocking up on Cheerios. Need them for my cereal port.
unclesmrgol on June 21, 2009 at 1:06 AM
Cheerios. Humm. Cheeri-O-s. Os.
Maybe it is like a trademark fight or something.
MikeA on June 21, 2009 at 8:24 AM
Now anything that is sold with a claim that it has health benefits is a drug. Jenny Craig, call your office.
Next week’s headline: Subway Sandwich chain seised by FDA.
MikeA on June 21, 2009 at 8:37 AM
Just another case of useless government spending.
scrubbiedude on June 21, 2009 at 9:46 AM
Well, how about them apples? “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Send_Me on June 21, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Someone should ‘seise’ your high school diploma.
simplesimon on June 21, 2009 at 9:12 PM
That proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt. The FDA is run by a bunch of morons that can’t tell the difference from a doctors prescription, from a bowl of breakfast cereal.
It’s the FDA’s fault, that we’re all getting addicted, every morning, from OD’ing on Cheerios. /Sarcasm
byteshredder on June 21, 2009 at 11:47 PM
It’s about time the FDA went after Cheerios for reporting it’s healthful effect. It’s a lie.Everyone knows that Lucky Charms and Cocoa Puffs are the real health food.
Jeff from WI on June 22, 2009 at 6:57 AM
Granted, I am an abysmal typist and too often do not spell check posts to blogs. But attacking spelling is a sure sign that you have lost an argument. Now if you want to seize my diploma/s, fell free to make the attempt. Or maybe you can have your jackboots do it for you like your Mr. Obama and his new friend Ahmadinejad.
By the way, anyone else noticing that Ahmadinejad’s name is falling out of use in all the news stories and most of the reporting on Iran is now referring to Khamenei? Don’t know what significanc e this might have but it seems to make the point that Khamenei and the mullahcracy may have to answer to the people and that Ahmadinejad is rapidly becoming irrelevant.
MikeA on June 22, 2009 at 12:38 PM
In a related story 733 California lettuce growers have been arrested for growing vegetables that they portray as “good for you”. The story further states that a warrant has been issued for the inventor of lettuce.
chicken thief on June 22, 2009 at 12:41 PM
This just blows me away. Every time I think that democrat/liberals have gotten as foolish as they can possibly get, they come out with something more foolish
pitter43 on June 22, 2009 at 3:30 PM
General Mills to be taken over by Obama. Now called Government Mills
Jeff from WI on June 22, 2009 at 7:54 PM
She hawt when she laughs.
Jaibones on June 22, 2009 at 11:03 PM
Obama’s FDA to prove Trix isn’t for kids.
Jeff from WI on June 23, 2009 at 7:31 AM
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