FDA says Nestle drinks not 'medical food'

[The Straight Story]

FDA says Nestle drinks not 'medical food'

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Officials of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration say Nestle HealthCare Nutrition has wrongly marketed some drinks as "medical food."

In a letter to David Yates, president of Nestle HealthCare Nutrition, the FDA said it had reviewed the Web sites www.Nestle-Nutrition.com, www.NestleNutritionStore.com and http://www.kidessentials.com.

"Your BOOST Kid Essentials Nutritionally Complete Drink -- Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry flavors -- is promoted on your Web sites as a medical food, and the labeling claims on your Web sites represent the product as a medical food for the medical condition of 'failure to thrive' and also for 'pre/post surgery, injury or trauma, chronic illness,'" the letter said.

The FDA said the label is false or misleading as a medical food, and does not meet the statutory definition of a medical food in the Orphan Drug Act.

The Orphan Drug Act defines medical food as "a food which is formulated to be consumed or administered internally under the supervision of a physician and which is intended for the specific dietary management of a disease or condition for which distinctive nutritional requirements, based on recognized scientific principles, are established by medical evaluation."

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/12/26/FDA-says-Nestle-drinks-not-medical-food/UPI-77301261868691/

[CoffeeCat]

1. Nestle's powdered hot chocolate also contains...

...high fructose corn syrup.

[Occulus]

12. I accidentally bought BREAD- straight-up white bread- that had HFCS.

I got home, looked in all my cookbooks (Including Joy) and looked online, and couldn't find one single white bread recipe that used HFCS, or any corn syrup.

WTF is HFCS doing in bread, anyway? What can it possibly add to the bread that makes it better? Is it shelf life?

Please tell me they're not adding that to white bread so it increases the shelf life. I doubt it would, but it's the only rationale I can think of.

[CoffeeCat]

13. It's probably in motor oil...

It's crazy isn't it? HFCS is in so many things. I have two children, and try to find
cereals or snacks that don't have HFCS. It's nearly impossible. Even yogurt, granola
bars and crackers have this stuff.

It's sad because HFCS and partially hydrogenated oils turn a snack or a treat into
a health hazard. I remember eating Twinkies, Snowballs and Ho-Hos in my lunch as
a kid. Granted, these things were not healthy. The had sugar and some fat in them.
However, it was real sugar and the fats were not chemically altered--turning the
food into lethal weapons.

The Twinkie of today is not the Twinkie of thirty years ago.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. The problem is that parents think they're doing something good for their kids

but the product is absolute crap.

Thanks for posting this.

[Quantess]

5. Sort of like "Baby Einstein" dvd's

Which not only did not make babies smarter, it may have actually impeded their development.

[canetoad]

3. Strangely, the BOOST kids essentials website

is unavailable.

From another site:

Boost Kids Essentials Nutritionally Complete Immunity Protection Drink

INGREDIENTS:

Water, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Sodium Caseinate (milk), High Oleic Sunflower Oil, Soybean Oil, Cocoa (Processed with Alkali), Medium Chain Triglycerides, Whey Protein Concentrate, Calcium Caseinate, Calcium Phosphate Tribasic (less than 0.5%), Potassium Citrate, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Cellulose Gel, Soy Lecithin, Magnesium Phosphate Tribasic, Sodium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Carrageenan, Ascorbic Acid, Cellulose Gum, Taurine, M Inositol, Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Niacinamide, L Carnitine, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Beta Carotene, Folic Acid, Biotin, Chromium Chloride, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin K1, Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12, Canola Oil, L Reuteri Protectis, Manganese Sulphate, Copper Gluconate, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Zinc Sulphate, Vittamin A Palmitate, Riboflavin, BHA/BHT.

--------------
Got just about everything except broccoli.

[Monk06]

7. Casein and cellulose gel? Add some tempera color powder and you have a good water based paint.

[surrealAmerican]

8. ... except with sugar as the second ingredient ...

... your paint will be attracting ants.

[MattSh]

11. Mmmmm

Factory synthesized chemicals for breakfast.

Yummm

[jmowreader]

4. I tried pinging the KidEssentials site

It is "temporarily down." Probably to remove the "medical food" information.

[niyad]

6. years ago there was a boycott against nestle for the marketing of their infant formula to third-

world countries, claiming that the formula was better and safer than breastfeeding. of course, the water in those parts of the world WASN'T that safe, soooooo. . .

[otherlander]

10. But the babies wouldn't be drinking water

as it came from springs/wells, they would be drinking water after it was filtered through a human body and transformed into milk- Overall, safer and more immune-boosing, being live tissue and whatnot, than processed, unliving formula.

[otherlander]

9. Good.

It's fucking sick that they're marketing that stuff as food for kids. Meal replacement? That's disgusting enough when they push it on adults as a means of weight loss... People, you're supposed to eat food. As minimally refined from the plants and animals it's derived from, the better. (Add to that- The more the balance is tipped towards more plant derived, less animal derived, the better- and that's pretty much everything that needs to be known about eating well.)