Celebrity Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr. and Fresenius Medical Care Kick Off Football Tailgating Season wit

Celebrity Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr. and Fresenius Medical Care Kick Off Football Tailgating Season with Kidney-Friendly Food Tour

Food Network Chef Will Meet with Local Dialysis Patients and Families to Share Recipes and Tips for Healthy Game-Time Meals

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- With football season just around the corner, Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr. is taking his "flavor of bold" cuisine and recipes on the road to several U.S. cities where fans know how to enjoy their tailgating festivities. Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA) is bringing Chef McCargo on a five-city tour so that dialysis patients and their families can meet the chef and learn about kidney-friendly tailgating foods that are affordable, easy to make and enjoyable for the entire family.

Sauce-less BBQ Baby Back Ribs, created by Celebrity Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr., are kidney-friendly and the perfect tailgating food for all football fans. (Photo: Business Wire)

McCargo's fall tailgating tour kicks off in San Diego, Calif., on Sept. 6, then moves on to:

• Columbia, S.C., on Sept. 12

• Memphis, Tenn., on Sept. 25

• Pittsburgh, Pa., on Oct. 18

• Houston, Texas, on Oct. 22

Detailed event locations and schedules can be found at http://www.ultracare-dialysis.com.

At each stop, McCargo - host of Food Network's cooking show "Big Daddy's House" - will visit FMCNA clinics to share cooking tips and delicious recipes developed for dialysis patients in collaboration with the company's dietitians. These events, which are free and open to the public, will also offer food samples from some of McCargo's tastiest tailgating recipes such as sauceless barbecue ribs, honey-chipotle chicken wings, turkey chili, and jalapeno, lime and smoked mozzarella turkey burgers.

Dialysis is a life-sustaining process that cleans waste products and removes extra fluids from a person's blood when their kidneys have failed. To stay healthy, people on dialysis also have to limit their intake of potassium, phosphorus, salt and saturated fats. That can make their meals bland and boring. So to put bold back in their diets, McCargo and FMCNA have developed a collection of mouth-watering kidney-friendly recipes - two dozen thus far - featuring fresh ingredients and flavorful seasonings such as ginger, lemon zest and cayenne pepper.

"We're extremely pleased to sponsor Chef McCargo's tailgating tour," said Robin Russell, lead dietitian for FMCNA's North Texas region, who has collaborated with the chef on several recipes. "Not only is it a great way for patients to learn about healthy recipes and cooking tips, it can also help to inspire people living with kidney failure to live better lives on dialysis by getting more enjoyment from their cooking and eating."

In anticipation of football season, FMCNA offers dialysis patients the following tips for preparing healthier, low-stress tailgating meals full of flavor and fun:

Five Tips for Easy, Healthier Tailgating

1. Remember the basics: Don't forget paper plates, napkins and plenty of ice in the cooler to keep your food cold.

2. Stick tolow-stress recipes: Foods that use simple ingredients and tools will let you spend less time cooking, and more time watching the game.

3. Make a grocery list and read food labels' nutrition facts: Advance planning and careful shopping can help youavoid making poor choices in football food.

4. Choose salt-free snacks: To satisfy your crunchy cravings, slice corn tortillas into wedges, spray with non-stick cooking spray and bake for 20 minutes. For extra flavor, brush with lime juice and sprinkle with your favorite salt-free seasoning mix.

5. Make food ahead, in individual servings: Pre-cooking and portioning, when possible, makes meals faster and easier to serve, and to clean up. You'll also be less likely to overeat.

FMCNA encourages people to visit www.ultracare-dialysis.com for Chef McCargo's kidney-friendly recipes and to view his online cooking demonstration videos. Dialysis patients can also find fitness tips, videos, and other information on the website about staying active and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. For more information about dialysis facilities near you, call toll free at 1-888-325-5175.

About Fresenius Medical Care North America

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 www.fmcna.com; for information about patient services, visit www.ultracare-dialysis.com.

About Chef Aaron McCargo, Jr.

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.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130819005839/en/

Media contact:
Full & By
Heather Smith, 1-617-638-0022 / voice
smithh@fullandby.co
or
Company contact:
Fresenius Medical Care
Rosemary Heinold, 1-781-699-4171 / voice
rosemary.heinold@fmc-na.com

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