Doctors across the United States commended on Saturday California's just-enacted law on banning trans fats in restaurant food in the state.(File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    LOS ANGELES, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Doctors across the United States commended on Saturday California's just-enacted law on banning trans fats in restaurant food in the state.

    "California is at the forefront of protecting our children's and our families' health," said Jeffrey Luther, president of the 7,000-member California Academy of Family Physicians.

    Under the law signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday, trans fats, long linked to health problems, must be excised from restaurant products beginning in 2010, and from all retail baked goods by 2011.

    California, a national trendsetter in all matters edible, became the first state in the nation to have such a rule, although hcities such as New York already do.

    "The trans fats commonly used in oil and shortening are proven to cause heart disease," Luther said, "and that causes premature deaths. Eliminating these fats will help eliminate heart attacks and strokes."

    The law will affect the most populous state's 88,000 restaurants, as well as its bakeries and other food purveyors.

    "I think the potential here is real for a far greater understanding of the harms of trans fats, and to encourage more states to do the same," Clyde Yancy, incoming president of the American Heart Association, said of the California law's enactment.

    Trans fats are created by pumping hydrogen into liquid oil at high temperature, a process called partial hydrogenation. The process results in an inexpensive fat that prolongs the shelf life and appearance of packaged foods and that, many fast-food restaurants say, helps make cooked food crisp and flavorful.

    But trans fats have also been found in scientific studies to lower high-density lipoproteins, the "good" cholesterol, while increasing low-density lipoproteins, the "bad" cholesterol, high levels of which contribute to the onset of heart disease, the leading cause of death in California and other places of the country.