Denny's Culinary Crime Spree

When I first read about this I initially thought that this is just another frivolous lawsuit that the U.S. is so infamous for. After a few minutes however, it struck me that this is far from frivolous, it goes to the core of running a responsible business...something that Denny's is obviously not doing.

From the Huffington Post...

We at the Center for Science in the Public Interest think that the sodium levels at Denny's are so out of control--and hidden from customers--that we're serving as co-counsel on a class action lawsuit filed against the chain in a New Jersey court. That lawsuit is aimed at getting the chain to warn consumers about how much sodium is in each offering.

Keep in mind that people over 40, African Americans, and people with high blood pressure--that's 70 percent of all adults--should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day. That's for an entire day's eating. The rest of the population can safely consume a bit more, about 2,300 mg per day (equivalent to one teaspoon of salt).

• Three-quarters of Denny's meals have more than 1,500 mg of sodium.
• Consider Moons Over My Hammy. It's basically a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich that comes with hash brown potatoes. It has 3,230 mg of sodium. That's more than two days' worth for most Americans.
• Consider a double cheeseburger with French fries. At McDonald's, that meal has about 1,500 mg of sodium. Denny's double cheeseburger with fries has 4,130 mg of sodium. That's 275 percent of the recommended daily limit.
• A full dinner at Denny's can be even worse. Say you start with a bowl of clam chowder, and move on to a Spicy Buffalo Chicken Melt sandwich and seasoned fries. That meal has 6,700 mg of sodium. For healthy, young adults, that's more sodium than should be consumed in three days. For everyone else, that's basically four-and-a-half days' worth of salt in one dinner.

We met privately with Denny's officials to get them to do something meaningful about sodium, like agreeing to a schedule of gradual reductions over several years, and, in the interim, to disclose on menus just how much sodium is in each food or meal. Apart from reducing the sodium in several foods and adding a few lower-sodium choices, the chain failed to take action.