Cheerios are no longer my anti-drug...

Is my baby Boozer on drugs?

He is according to the Food and Drug Administration, who today slapped the wrist of cereal-manufacturer General Mills for 'misrepresenting' their flagship breakfast cereal 'Cheerios' (which Boo munches by the tiny fistful.)

In a 'strongly worded' letter, they argued:

Based on claims made on your product's label, we have determined that your Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is a drug - your Cheerios product bears the following claim on its label:

• "you can Lower Your Cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks"

This claim indicates that Cheerios is intended for use in lowering cholesterol, and therefore in preventing, mitigating, and treating the disease hypercholesterolemia. It may not be legally marketed with the above claims in the United States without an approved new drug application.

As a result of this appraisal, General Mills have been ordered to dial back their Cholesterol-reducing claims.

What grind my gears is that the FDA didn't demand this because General Mills weren't being honest about their product's potential to reduce Cholesterol ("Cheerios' health claims were not in question," the Financial Times argued.)

The Food and Drug administration had their nose out of joint because General Mills dared to market themselves as 'heart healthy' without first filing a drug application with the great, all powerful (and willfully corrupt) federal poombah known as the FDA.

The more I witness the shenanigans of federal bodies like the FDA and the FCC (who police radio and television broadcasts) the more I shake my head. Lobbyists are rife throughout both organizations and most of their decisions are politically (or financially) motivated.

The FDA's argument that Cheerios should be reclassified as a drug is just the latest strike in a campaign to stamp out any form of health or wellness product that isn't championed by pharmaceutical industry lobbyists (those FDA officials need their kickbacks, after all.)

Even now, they're attempting to have massage oil reclassified as a 'medical device' (for which, of course, you need FDA approval to market) and slap the 'drug' label on vitamins, herbs, supplements and even teabags.

This means natural, homeopathic products which offer real health benefits could be muscled out of the market entirely - to make way for artificial, patented drugs marketed by the pharma industry (which claim to do the same thing, but in a chemically altered form which they're allowed to patent.)

Of course I want dangerous supplements and products removed from the shelves (and the FDA has done well to get dangerous diet-drugs like ephedrine taken off the market) but I'm not convinced that this organization is motivated by purely altruistic reasons.

Some of the products they wish to ban offer cheaper, natural and more effective alternatives to modern drugs. Some of the modern drugs the FDA have approved are far more dangerous than some of the supplements we've been warned about:

For example, take anti-inflammatory Rofecoxib - marketed as Vioxx - which the FDA approved in 1999; it was still an 'approved' drug when manufacturer Merck pulled it from the shelves for causing kidney disease and heart arrhythmia.

Rather cynically, I've stopped trusting what the FDA tell us - I think the majority of their decisions are influenced by lobbyists and politicians, instead of the medical professionals we should be relying on.

And, as for Cheerios?

Well, whether this makes him a 'drug-addict' or not, Boo will still be allowed to eat them!