(Translated from an article in “La Opinión”, the nation’s largest Spanish-language daily publication)

Araceli Martínez Ortega,            
La Opinión Correspondent

Thursday, July 12th 2007

SACRAMENTO. — Two Hispanic businesses served as examples in California yesterday by demonstrating that it is possible to transition away from trans fats, known to increase the risk of heart disease—the number one cause of deaths in the United states.

Norma Chavez-Nielsen and Julia Marquez showed lawmakers, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, that food without trans fats (artificial fats derived from a mixture of vegetable oil and hydrogen) are also tasty, cost effective, and last a long time.

Norma Chavez, daughter of Mexican parents and owner of Churrolandia bakery in Whittier, came to the Capitol Building yesterday bearing Mexican sweet breads and doughnuts made with no artificial fats.

Norma decided last year not to use trans fats. She remembers, “Our bakers resisted and got angry but I asked them try it and if the public did not like how our breads turned out, we would go back to using trans fats.”

Norma says that the vegetable shortening used in the pastries, muffins, and sweet breads was substituted for palm oil. For frying the doughnuts, she used canola oil.

She said,” We used to use pork lard for the tamales; now we use palm oil.  The result was that neither the flavor nor the texture changed and our clients stayed with us.”

La Opinión asked Norma if many Latino business owners were afraid to make the change. She extended an invitation to them to visit her bakery and try her pastries, cakes, pies, sweet breads, tamales, and pasties.  She emphasized that,” There is no need to fear change. The benefit to our community and our customers far outweighs the costs.”

Norma’s husband, Dr Terry Nielson, explained that trans fats raise the level of bad cholesterol and reduce the levels of good cholesterol.  He indicated that, “trans fats are the worst fats.” He added that for the Latino community, with its high incidence of diabetes, strokes, and heart attacks, it is very important to reduce consumption of trans fats as continued use will only increase the risks for these diseases.

On the other hand, Julia Marquez, who together with her husband Raul and her daughter Adriana, own a Tacos Don Chente franchise in Norwalk, revealed that she has always used soy bean oil to make the foods she sells in her restaurant and all other restaurants in the chain.  Julia Indicated, “Everything is fried in the same manner; the quality and flavor is very good and the frying oil lasts just as long.”

Norwalk Assembly Member Tony Mendoza, presented Assembly Bill AB97 yesterday to the Senate Health Committee., The bill would force restaurants to substitute trans fats with other, healthier oils.  He observed that, “Those fats kill and we have the responsibility to protect the public from unhealthy products, especially when they can be substituted quickly and at low costs.”

The primary opponent of this measure is the California Restaurant Association. Their spokesperson, Christian Sheperson, said that Mendoza’s initiative will affect small businesses who have a hard time finding products that can substitute for trans fats without changing the finished product’s characteristics. He added that Julia and Norma are not representative of the 87,000 restaurants throughout the state.