A class action lawsuit was filed this week by a New Jersey man with the support of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The lawsuit aims to force Denny’s Restaurants to disclose on menus the amount of sodium in each of its meals and to place a notice on its menus warning about high sodium levels.

“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,” said CSPI litigation director Steve Gardner.

In a perfect world, restaurants wouldn’t exist for the purpose of making money, but to provide us delicious, nutritious food. They would be totally honest about all their ingredients and methods, remain current on the best possible nutrition research and provide their services at a reasonable cost to those who need them. They would put our needs and interests above their own and immediately change anything shown to be detrimental to their customer’s health.

We don’t live in a perfect world. Restaurants exist to make money. This money is used  to keep the lights on, employ and pay their staff, print their menus, buy their raw ingredients, and defend themselves in court. People who visit restaurants exchange their money for food. Until the food is consumed, the money stays in the customer’s pocket. Consumers have the power to decide where they spend their money.

Denny’s does not conceal sodium level information in their foods. Their website offers the same nutritional information for each of its menu items that would be available on a food label.

If a consumer regularly buys a frozen pizza at the grocery store that is properly labeled, but finds that the pepperoni has an ingredient that makes him ill, should he sue the food processor? The grocery store? The trucking company that brings the food to market? The information is on the label for a reason: so the consumer may make informed choices. Consumers who have health issues like hypertension need to be educated on making proper food choices and encouraged to seek out the information they need.

Aha, you say, but the information isn’t on the restaurant’s menu! Should each menu item be on it’s own half page so that there is sufficient room for the nutrition information and content listing? What about the existing holes in the labeling law? If MSG can be present in foods under five or six different names, would an ingredient list really be that much help? If a customer chooses not to help himself to the information available on the website, would they pay attention to the same material on a menu? What about information overload—where so much information is available that consumers learn to ignore it? Why stop at sodium for warning messages printed on menus? How about these:

“Warning: the meat in this item has been purchased from a Confined Animal Feeding Operation and been fed a diet that is inappropriate for its species and has received antibiotics, growth hormones and inhumane treatment.”

“Caution: the aspartame in this drink is an excitotoxin, which can lead to neurological damage.”

“Notice: the corn in the batter may contain genetically modified ingredients.”

“Consume at your own risk: this item is prepared using genetically modified canola oil, proven to increase the risk of heart disease.”

“Potential hazard: this food contains denatured proteins from having been exposed to microwave radiation.”

My point is that the information this consumer needed is available. Clearly, from the basis of his lawsuit, the consumer knew excess sodium was hazardous to his condition. The customer had the opportunity to discover ingredients and nutrition information before putting the Moons Over My Hammy in his mouth: on his home computer before the visit or at the restaurant during it. The customer chose not to look behind the curtain.

It is not my intention to defend a corrupt food system on the verge of collapse. I’m not justifying an “anything goes” mentality under the banner of capitalism. I merely wish to point out that the time has come for each of us to take personal responsibility for what we eat. Find out about the ingredients your favorite restaurant uses. If you don’t like what you find, don’t eat there. Write a letter, make a phone call, order healthier choices. The courts are not here to protect us from our own ignorance or denial.

Yeah, it’s gonna take time, forethought and effort. But not as much time, forethought and effort as planting, cultivating and harvesting your own vegetables, milking your own cows or slaughtering your own chickens. We need to be prepared to pay all the prices when we ask others to feed us.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.

th_foodrenegadefist_150