Celebrity Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr. Brings Tips For Kidney-Friendly Foods and Football Tailgating to Houston

Food Network Chef to Share Healthy Game-Time Recipes With Fresenius Medical Care Dialysis Patients and Families

Celebrity Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr. Brings Tips For Kidney-Friendly Foods and Football Tailgating to Houston

(FMCNA), the nation’s leading dialysis provider, and , host of Food Network’s cooking show “”, are bringing the “flavor of bold” to Houston on Tuesday, Oct. 22. With more than 32,000 dialysis patients in Texas and football season in full swing, McCargo will visit Houston as part of a five-city, cross-country tour to meet with dialysis patients and their families and tell them about kidney-friendly tailgating foods that are affordable, easy to make and enjoyable for the entire family.

An estimated 26 million Americans have chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is a progressive, usually permanent loss of kidney function. When CKD leads to kidney failure, the only treatments are a kidney transplant or dialysis, a filtering process that removes waste products and extra fluids from the blood. To stay healthy, people on dialysis also have to limit their intake of potassium, phosphorus, salt and saturated fats. While that can make their meals bland and boring, McCargo and FMCNA have developed a collection of mouth-watering to put variety and bold flavors back in their diets.

Free and open to the public, McCargo’s appearances at two of the 36 FMCNA clinics in the Houston area are intended to share cooking tips and delicious tailgating recipes developed for dialysis patients in collaboration with the company’s dietitians. McCargo will offer samples from some of his tastiest tailgating recipes, such as honey-chipotle chicken wings and fall harvest orzo pasta salad, at the following locations:

“We’re extremely pleased to partner with on this tailgating tour,” said Amy Holt, home therapy area manager for FMCNA’s Houston region. “Not only is it a great way for patients to learn about healthy recipes and cooking tips, it can also help inspire people living with kidney failure to live better lives on dialysis by getting more enjoyment from their cooking and eating.”

Through our leading network of more than 2,150 dialysis facilities in North America and our vascular access centers, laboratory, pharmacy and affiliated hospitals and nephrology practices, Fresenius Medical Care provides renal services to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. We are also the continent’s top producer of dialysis equipment, dialyzers and related disposable products and a major supplier of renal pharmaceuticals.

For more information about the company, visit ; for information about patient services, visit .

Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr. competed on and won season four of “The Next Food Network Star” in 2008, beating out thousands of culinary hopefuls for the ultimate dream job – his own Food Network show. “Big Daddy’s House” premiered in 2008 and continues to be a success. On “Big Daddy’s House,” Aaron shares his passion for big, bold flavors and fun, family cooking, bringing a down-to-earth vibe and warm smile to the kitchen. He recently published his first cookbook, “Simply Done, Well Done.” Whether cooking with his children, relatives, friends, or even by himself, big food and big fun reign supreme.