What are Whole Grain Products and Why Cheerios Are Now Classified by the FDA as Unapproved Drugs.Whole grain products are good for us. 
Research shows that eating whole grain products such as oatmeal, whole-wheat bread, and brown rice as part of a healthy diet can help reduce the risk of heart disease, some types of cancer, and Type-2 diabetes.
I see the whole grain label on the top of my Cheerios box, and I think Cheerios is a good choice for my whole family. Unfortunately, the FDA announced that Cheerios’ health claim of lowering cholesterol actually classifies Cheerios as an unapproved drug. Since I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried, here’s a copy of the FDA’s warning letter to General Mills.
http://www.fda.gov/foi/warning_letters/s7188c.pdf General Mills will have to change the wording on the box, but Cheerios is still a part of any healthy diet for the whole family.
But What Are Whole Grains? The good news is that all grains start out as whole grain. The bad news is that they need to keep all three parts of the original grain (the germ, the bran, and the endosperm) in their original proportions to still count as whole grains.
What Do You Look for On an Ingredient Label? The quick way is to look for the whole grain stamp on the package label. If there is no whole grain stamp, then look at the ingredients listing. It’s whole grain if you see the words “whole” or "whole grain" before the grain’s name. Here’s my favorite chart, courtesy of the whole grains council of what to look for when you see a label at the grocery store.
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