万花筒 2009-05-14&05-15 爱护身体少吃盐（在线收听）

What some restaurants tout as specials, the food police called toxic for their salt content.

"What we found were shocking, even for people like me who have been immersed in this issue for 30 years."

The non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest, a health advocacy group, tracked meals at chain restaurants finding some contain more than three times the amount of salt that’s recommended on the daily basis. The Red Lobster Admiral’s feast, the lobster, mashed potatoes, Caesar salad, a biscuit and lemonade total just over 7,000 milligrams of salt. Chili's buffalo chicken Fajita's with tortillas, condiments and a Dr. Pepper almost 7,000. Olive Garden's Tour of Italy lasagna with bread stick, family size garden salad and dressing and a Coca-Cola over 6,000 milligrams. And the report targets kid's menus. The Red Lobster's chicken fingers with the biscuit, fries and raspberry lemonade has about 2,400 milligrams of salt, roughly two days recommended intake of sodium for kids.

"Salt is pretty dangerous because it can lead to high blood pressure which leads to heart attack and stroke and it also can worsen the condition of people who have heart failure."

The American Heart Association recommends adults have less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day which amounts to a teaspoon. For African-Americans, middle aged and older adults and people with high blood pressure, the recommended limit is 1,500 milligrams. Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and Chili's did not dispute this finding, but told CNN they offer options to people watching calories and sodium intake. A restaurant trade group supports listing nutritional information and says restaurants have been cutting sodium levels.

"We need to recognize that people go to restaurants for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's for convenience, sometimes it’s their occasional indulgence. So it's not something that they will consume every day."