The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has thrown a stern warning in the direction of General Mills. Cheerios is not a cholesterol drug, they remind the cereal maker in a letter on May 5, so it should stop acting like one on the yellow box.

The little toasted O's stepped over the line with the claim that a regular diet of Cheerios could "lower your cholesterol 4 percent in six weeks." The FDA is not thrilled that Cheerios is marketing itself as a cholesterol drug on its box and website, and sent a detailed letter letting the company know it had waded too far into drug territory.

With an ever expanding list of claims made by food manufacturers, from flavored water claiming to be equivalent to eating a piece of fruit, to cereal lowering your heart numbers -- Cheerios is just one example of a growing trend of health claims on processed foods.General Mills told The Wall St. Journal that the science is strong, but they are looking forward to talking to the FDA about the fine line between marketing themselves as a healthy breakfast food and a drug.

It might seem a little nit-picky since the FDA doesn't even regulate the entire industry of supplements including Hydroxycut, which was recently voluntarily recalled after causing liver damage and other health problems in people.
The FDA did not claim that Cheerios caused any harm. But with the proliferation of health claims made on food packages, the FDA has to start putting its foot down somewhere.