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Denny's Sued Over Salt

Categories: Diet & Weight Loss

salt shaker
Photo: L. Marie, Flickr
Eating certain meals at Denny's is like floating your insides in the Dead Sea. Order Denny's Meat Lover's Scramble and you'll kick off the morning with 5,690 milligrams of sodium. That single meal packs more than twice the suggested daily allowance of salt for healthy Americans (2300 mg), and a potentially dangerous level for high-risk patrons on a restricted salt diet. Now Denny's is being sued.

Consumer watchdog group, The Center for Science in the Public Interest, has sicked its successful litigation team on salty Denny's, recently filing a lawsuit on behalf of longtime Denny's patron Nick DeBenedetto, a 48-year-old New Jersey resident on high blood pressure meds and a reduced-salt diet. DeBenedetto says if he'd known some of his favorites, such as The Super Turkey Bird sandwich, contained significantly more than 1,500 mg of sodium, he'd never have ordered them. And that's before the side of fries.

The American Heart Association works hard to remind the public that high dietary sodium levels can aggravate or even lead to high blood pressure, which means a greater likelihood of developing heart disease or stroke. Then think about how often busy Americans head to restaurants each month.

Turns out CSPI previously negotiated privately with Denny's, asking for broad sodium reduction and menu disclosures. After the chat ended earlier this year, Denny's made small sodium reductions in a few items such as cheese sauce, kids' meals (good!) and shrimp skewers. But it wasn't enough for CSPI, and it's not enough for the health of Americans, either. Restaurant-ridiculous amounts of sodium, fat and processed carbs need to go, besides the fact patrons should be able to open a menu and conveniently glance at a complete nutritional profile of every item. If it's even available, coming clean via website disclosure misses the nutritional mark.

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