They call it the Food and Drug Administration. So you might think the safety of food and drugs are tested to the same degree before they're allowed to go on the market.
In fact, that's not the way it works. But perhaps it should, says Dr. John Ball, executive vice president or the American Society for Clinical Pathology in Chicago.
Ball chaired a committee organized by the Institute of Medicine that was asked to come up with a way to vet some of the biomarkers that are routinely used in safety studies. (For instance, do higher levels of "bad" cholesterol really translate into an increased risk of heart disease?)
But as the committee members contemplated a box of Cheerios, they started to consider a larger question: Was it OK for the box to tell consumers "You could lower your cholesterol 4 percent in 6 weeks"? And that led to an even bigger question: Is there any reason to hold health claims for foods and dietary supplements to a lesser standard than health claims made for drugs?
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Los Angeles Times.