Shhh-- Don't Tell Anyone Cheerios Lowers Cholesterol
At the same time, is this really a good use of the FDA's time? Don't they have Abilify ads to police?
I.
Imagine my surprise: the FDA doesn't dispute that it lowers cholesterol. The claim that Cheerios can cut your cholesterol by 4% in 6 weeks is apparently backed by a real study (cheerios.pdf) in a real journal that is not available anywhere on the Pubmed. Of course. Pubmed's too full of fake studies that are still online.
But you can't accuse Cheerios of being misleading about the extent of the effect: it doesn't say "gigantosaurously," it says "4%," right there on the box. And that's been there for ten years, the FDA just noticed it?
So why now? And if they don't have a problem with saying it lowers cholesterol, then what are they upset about?
II.
If Seroquel says it is good for "bipolar," that's a violation, because it isn't indicated for "bipolar" but only certain phases of bipolar. Lexapro is indicated for Major Depression, but they can't say it's good for post-partum depression, or dysthymia, even if there is good data, because it doesn't have FDA approval. The FDA is very rigid about language. You can only claim to do the thing that the FDA agreed you could do, even if it is established by everyone else that it can do something else. No extrapolations.
Here are the claims that upset the FDA:
Specifically, your Cheerios® product bears the following claims ort [sic] 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."
I've taken the liberty of underlining the words "hypercholesterolemia" and "coronoary heart disease" in the above claims. I did this, because the very next sentence in the warning letter is:
These claims indicate that Cheerios® is intended for use in lowering cholesterol, and therefore in preventing, mitigating, and treating the disease hypercholesterolemia. Additionally, the claims indicate that Cheerios® is intended for use in the treatment, mitigation, and prevention of coronary heart disease through, lowering total and "bad" (LDL) cholesterol.
Got that? The FDA is upset because Cheerios improperly made claims that it never actually made in reality. Consistently, over the past ten years.
III.
If you're confused, this may help:
the label of your Cheerios® cereal claims a degree of risk reduction for coronary heart disease by stating that Cheerios® can lower cholesterol by four percent in six weeks. High blood total and LDL cholesterol levels are a surrogate endpoint for coronary heart disease; therefore, the cholesterol-lowering claims on the Cheerios® label attribute a degree of risk reduction for coronary heart disease because if total and LDL cholesterol levels decline, the risk of coronary heart disease declines as well.
Translation: saying it lowers cholesterol is the same thing as saying it lowers coronoary heart disease, because everyone knows they're the same thing.
First, this isn't even true. I'm not an Atkins nut, but the cholesterol connection is one of correlation, not causality. Lowering your cholesterol if it is high is a good idea, but we don't know why; and simply lowering it does not equate to awesome reductions in heart disease. Lipitor is undisputedly good at lowering cholesterol, but only reduces heart attacks from the baseline rate of 8% down to 4%, which may not be worth the price of Lipitor.
Second, Cheerios isn't overreaching-- the FDA is. Since when does the FDA allow conflating endpoints? It doesn't let antidepressants say they reduce the risk of suicide; yet here it puts those words into Cheerios's mouth.
IV.
Still confused?
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
Not that Cheerios is pretending to be a drug, or comparing itself to Lipitor. The very expression of a claim of health makes it a drug.
Again, the FDA does not have any issue with the veracity of the claim; only that by making the accurate claim Cheerios becomes a drug, which it isn't, so it can't make the claim.
There are a quadrillion "chemicals" that make explicit drug-like claims (penis enlargement, calming, cleaning your colon of spackle and paste, etc) that are much more egregious than Cheerios. Compare to the previous FDA warning letter for claims by Tropical Traditions that also "cause it to be a drug:"
"[C]oconut oil is converted by the body into "Monolaurin" a fatty acid with anti-viral properties that might be useful in the treatment of AIDS:"
See the difference? Tropical Traditions is actually saying it is a drug; Cheerios is merely describing what it does, and the FDA conflates that with a completely different clinical outcome.
Next would be saying fish is good for your heart; milk is good for teeth and bones; chicken soup is good for the soul, etc.
If the hypocrisy here is not sufficient, I'll give you this: if the FDA agrees with the claims, but says the claims make Cheerios a drug, then why wouldn't they mandate that Cheerios get approval as a drug? Instead, they prefer that people keep eating Cheerios but be unaware that it is a drug. Now: ponder all the "supplements" out there. The FDA knows; it doesn't care. It has Abilify ads to police. Do you know why? Because Abilify has a lot of money to pay in fines.
All agencies, private or public, have survival as the primary outcome. No agency exists to close itself.
Don't believe it?
Yes, that's the same Minneapolis FDA that sent the Cheerios warning letter. The [FDA] has nearly doubled the number of inspectors in its Minneapolis office over the past year, marking a rebuilding of its local presence.
...The "surge" in FDA operations doesn't mean, however, that the agency is gearing up for a crackdown on local businesses, said Charles Becoat, director of the regional office, at the meeting in February. "We're not the big bad police," he said.
So what was the hiring for, then?
FDA's Minneapolis office has also had a reputation of being "rational and sensible," he said.He's got a point; this is an entirely rational approach to transferring wealth from one party to another.
Digg | 
del.icio.us | 
StumbleUpon | 
Reddit | 
Yahoo! | 
My favourites
May 22, 2009 3:19 PM | Posted by : | Reply
"is one of correlation, not causality"
Isn't that true for all of science?
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
May 22, 2009 4:05 PM | Posted by : | Reply
That right there is amazing, and distressing.
Ugh.
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
May 22, 2009 4:24 PM | Posted by : | Reply
"Isn't that true for all of science?"
Nope.
Score: 5 (9 votes cast)
May 22, 2009 5:20 PM | Posted by : | Reply
That's the problem with government. It's the only major organization that has the luxury of defining its own reality. It will never be efficient or pragmatic. What's the incentive?
Score: 0 (2 votes cast)
May 23, 2009 2:32 PM | Posted by : | Reply
I'm writing a letter complaining of this nonsense to the FDA... Oh wait! that's right they don't reply to any of their mail (despite the staff increase) and probably don't even read it unless its return address is some lawfirm. I guess its up to the people who own the cherios brand to deal with this with lawyers and crap.
How completely idiotic though. Oh gee whiz we can't have a HARMLESS and completely safe food product claiming to have good health effects, its just not right.
yeah whatever. The FDA will eventually be replaced once they pull enough stupid stunts like this and people get sick of their money being wasted hasseling companies make safe and healthy foods while drug makers making potentially toxic and deadly medications get away with all sorts of unethical promotion of their drugs for unintended uses.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
May 23, 2009 8:05 PM | Posted by : | Reply
You all seem to be forgetting the most important point of all. Cheerios have cheery cartoons about monkeys that keep kids busy while parents read nutrition branding to keep themselves busy. It's only science in as much as it's a government sanctioned lobotomy.
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
June 27, 2013 1:25 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Thank you for another essential article. Where else could anyone get that kind of information in such a complete way of writing? I have a presentation incoming week, and I am on the lookout for such information.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
June 29, 2013 3:32 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Thank you for another essential article. Where else could anyone get that kind of information in such a complete way of writing? I have a presentation incoming week, and I am on the lookout for such information.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
July 1, 2013 11:17 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
and people get sick of their money being wasted hasseling companies make safe and healthy foods while drug makers making potentially toxic and deadly medications get away with all sorts of unethical promotion of their drugs for unintended uses.
When I am sick, I suffer in pain. When I am in pain, I do not spend my time agonising over whether or not those who claim they can relieve my pain should be
a) punished for errors they make along the way, in good faith; or b) forced to prove to some third party that they can relieve my pain before they relieve my pain.
All that matters is that they relieve my pain for me. I cannot relieve it myself. When I am in pain, you won't want to get in between me and those who provide (or intend to provide) me with pain relief. I will cut you down.
Whether or not this is logical has never concerned me. When I am in pain, my only concern is relief. When I'm not in pain, I have no concerns. I'm careless. Carefree. Stop boring me with your concern for me. You're very negative and unpleasant. You could use some positive thinking and then you won't be concerned with my future concerns, which have never concerned me. I'm not concerned about the future when I feel good. I'm happy because I've been relieved of concerns, momentarily. My future is secured by my present moment of relief. His future honesty is secured by my present deceit.
Every human life has intrinsic value, by virtue of their existence. Men really should take care of all of them, in a perfect world. Of course family should come first. We're all God's precious creatures and He loves all of us but some are more deserving than others.
I will live happily ever after now. He loves me now. We are married now. He is not allowed to change his mind about the way he feels now. He is compelled to take care of me now. He's obligated now. Christ, I'm so relieved.
Lighten up, ladies. Live a little.
Last one to 15 stone is a rotten egg!
___________________
Toddlers got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one. Bitches be all of them. Toddlers are stupid sons-of-bitches but I guess anyone would be stupid if their mother was a stupid bitch. Oh.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
June 28, 2014 1:24 PM | Posted by : | Reply
[url=http://www.softassembly.com/Private-Label-Anti-Hijack.html]discount Private Label Anti Hijack[/url]. Sell your own software! Increase traffic, keep the profits.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Comments