High Blood Pressure and Alzheimer's: Which Foods to Avoid

Hi, Adele,

Good questions - and ones I've had to think about.

As far as your lobbying question, here are my initial thoughts (and hopefully you and others will post some other suggestions as well). With the continued emphasis on health issues and healthy eating (think of the transfat issues that with plenty of calls from the public which caused fast food restaurants and packaged foods to make changes), I think the time is right. What you can do:

1. Fill out the surveys/comment cards at restaurants that you get when you dine out in restaurants to ask for the listings on menus and to express your concerns about sodium content.

2. Send letters to the management of restaurants that you eat sharing concerns about sodium content and asking them to put this important information on menus.

3. Share the Men's Health article listed above with people you know and ask them to get involved.

4. Write letters to the editor of the newspaper where you live pointing out these issues.

5. Contact the Alzheimer's Association (or other advocacy groups) and talk to their legislative branch to see what they would suggest.

As far as the chef's knowledge about sodium content, I would wonder what the process is for recipe development (and admittedly, I haven't worked in restaurants, so this is just a hypothesis). I would assume that at the larger chains (such as Chili's or Macaroni Grill), recipes are developed at the corporate level and then shared among the various restaurants in order to ensure quality control (so that what you eat at a P.F. Chang in Minneapolis would taste exactly like what you would get in the same restaurant in Atlanta). And I would also assume that some of these chains use a nutritionist in developing their recipes (or should be, in the case of Chili's Guiltless entrees which are being marketed as healthy). So the chefs at the local restaurants probably don't know about sodium (they're just following the preset recipe), but I think by giving feedback at the corporate level (where recipe decisions are made), there's an opportunity to have feedback and to make a difference.

I'll keep thinking - and I hope you'll stay involved!

Dorian