Issue date: 11/5/08 Section: Editorial

Lorenzo Sanders III

This may spark some emails of protest but someone has to say it. I have a proposal; restaurants that sell high sodium foods should be prosecuted for attempted murder. Using the criminal justice system to regulate eating is controversial however, it's not without precedent.
Governor Schwarzenegger of California recently signed a law banning the use of trans fat at restaurants. Trans fats can preserve flavor and add to the shelf life of foods but has been linked to heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
A dependency on fast food and busy lifestyles make eating out almost a daily activity for most Americans. According to the National Restaurant Association, restaurants generate $558 billion in sales yearly and employ 13.1 million people. This is great news on one level as many dreams have been built on the foundations of cooking and baking. But on the other darker and gloomier side restaurants are killing us and no one is prosecuting the perpetrators.
I recently went to a neighborhood Chinese carry out and asked the lady behind the yellow glass for an order of three wings with no salt. She informed me that she did not have any salt free wings. Not understanding why she did not have any salt free wings I explained, "No, I'd like for you to get 3 wings that have not been cooked yet, and fry them just don't add any salt to them." The lady told me that she did not have any unsalted and uncooked wings because as soon as any of their food comes in the door it is washed off and salted! Determined not to cook when I got home I asked for an order of shrimp fried rice, no salt. it was the same thing. The brown /yellow rice and all the vegetables are salted as soon as they come in the door. I was finally able to get an order of white rice with shrimp and no salt.
A few weeks after that incident I went to Chipotle with a classmate. Chipotle boats all natural fresh ingredients which are very healthy as the nutrients have more bioavailability than processed foods. I ordered the beef and chicken bowl with guacamole, salsa, corn, rice, sour cream and black beans. I ate half of it for lunch and the other half the next day for dinner. On the third day I took my blood pressure to and was surprised to discover that it was 179/115.
After backtracking the only "odd" thing that I had eaten was the Chipotle. I went to their website at http://www.chipotle.com/ChipotleNutrition.pdf and was astonished at the results. I discovered that I had consumed over 4000mg of sodium in one meal in one day! WOW is right! No wonder my blood pressure was so high!

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