Sausalito Takes a Hearty Swipe at Cholesterol

Scenic bayside Sausalito, where posh waterfront restaurants serve up spectacular views of San Francisco as well as fish dishes swimming in Hollandaise sauce, labeled itself the nation’s first “cholesterol-free zone” Thursday.

The designation, meaningless as anything more than a health-education stunt by the City Council, was dreamed up by a local pharmacist and patterned after the recently popular idea of “nuclear-free zones”--cities and counties that outlaw the making, storage or use of nuclear bombs within their limits.

Cholesterol has not been banned in Sausalito, just cast in public disfavor. The city has added its imprimatur to pharmacist Fred Mayer’s campaign to teach people to consume less fat in their diets and to exercise to keep their coronary arteries clear and healthy.

Mayer, father of the Great American Smokeout and National Condom Week among other public-health campaigns, said he wanted to alert people in nuclear-free Sausalito that a danger more immediate than nuclear annihilation could be as close as their dinner plate.

Council Resolution

So Mayer asked the city to do to rich sauces and heavy desserts what it did to atom bombs. The City Council agreed, passing a resolution last week urging Sausalito’s affluent, trend-conscious residents to fight any fatty deposits in their blood vessels.

On Thursday, Mayor Robin Sweeny made the city’s pioneering cholesterol-free designation official.

“This is done in the spirit of trying to get the public’s attention. . . . If it gets a few laughs along the way, that is all right,” she said, posing in a restaurant next to a display of low-cholesterol vegetables--before slipping off for a lasagna luncheon with the Rotary Club.

(“Freddy would kill me if he knew that,” said Sweeny, a former nurse.)

Mayer, a stout but energetic fellow, said he got the idea for a cholesterol campaign while wrapping up his condom promotion, which was aimed at inhibiting the spread of AIDS.

Heart disease claims 550,000 Americans every year, he said, and many of those deaths can be traced to arteries clogged with fatty cholesterol deposits. Having already tackled such major-league health problems as cigarette smoking, cholesterol seemed a worthy foe.

Now seemed to be the best time to launch the attack, he added, because America has entered the cholesterol season, a stretch of marathon meals for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

His goal, supported by the American Heart Assn., is to reduce the number of calories Americans derive from the fat in their diets. At present, that rate is 35% to 40%; the goal is to lower it to about 30%.

Mayer, buoyed by past successes, believes he can persuade people to do it.

He runs health education campaigns--23 so far, by his count--as president of the Pharmacists’ Planning Services Inc. He described the organization as a nonprofit agency that “gets pharmacists out from behind the counter--where they spend most of the time counting, pouring and typing--and into the community, where they can put their nine years of schooling to use.”

Public support for the program, as noted by local chefs, is spotty.

Gary Doring, manager of the Spinnaker Restaurant, where the press conference was held, said he will join the cholesterol crusade by adding fruit plates and broiled chicken to his menu.

But John MacDonald, executive chef at the Alta Mira Hotel, said he does not plan to add any special meals to his fare, which already includes several low-cholesterol salads and pasta. He said he has not noticed customers asking specifically for low-cholesterol dishes.

Shanon Davis, chef at Scoma’s, said he was not aware of Sausalito’s pace-setting status in the war against cholesterol, but added that, coincidentally, he has decided to drop salmon with Hollandaise sauce from the eatery’s menu.

His substitute, he conceded sheepishly, will not be much of an improvement, cholesterol-wise. It’s poached salmon in a white wine-and-cream sauce.