"Waiter, There's Too Much Salt In My Food!" "Dangerous" Denny's Sued Over High Sodium Levels

​A class-action suit filed in New Jersey by longtime Denny's patron Nick DeBenedetto and backed by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) alleges that "Most meals at Denny's restaurants meals are dangerously high in salt, putting the chain's customers at greater risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke."

The CSPI claims that Denny's nutritional information should be available in its restaurants, not just online, and wants a judge to force Denny's to disclose on its menus the amount of table salt (sodium chloride) in each of its meals and to place a notice on its menus warning about high sodium levels.

It had been in talks with the chain earlier this year, and Denny's did go on to reduce the amount of sodium in some dishes, as part of its Better For You selection, but that's not enough for the CSPI, which states that, "By concealing an important material fact about its products--namely, that that these foods have disease-promoting levels of sodium--Denny's is failing its responsibility to its customers and is in violation of the laws of New Jersey and several other states."

A Denny's spokesman has retorted, saying the company "will fight the lawsuit aggressively in court. With hundreds of items on the menu, Denny's offers a wide variety of choices for consumers with different lifestyles, understanding that many have special dietary needs."

So what are the safe and "dangerous" levels being talked about? According to the US Department of Health and Human Services and US Department of Agriculture, the maximum recommended amount of sodium per day is 2,300 milligrams, or 1,500 milligrams for black people, middle-aged and older adults, and anyone with hypertension.