There's no ethnic equality when it comes to body fat. Chinese people accumulate fat differently from people of European descent, in a way that puts them at a higher risk for heart attacks, diabetes and other illnesses related to obesity, according to a new Canadian study.
The study, which examined 822 healthy individuals of different ethnic origins, found that Chinese and South Asian subjects carried significantly more fat around the inner abdomen than their European peers, even when the total amount of fat on their bodies was the same.
Inner abdominal fat, the kind you can't pinch when you grab your belly, builds up around the organs behind the muscle wall and is closely linked with problems leading to heart disease and diabetes, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar.
Fat distributed around the arms, legs and other parts of the body, which was found to be more prevalent in those of European descent, was less harmful, said lead researcher Scott Lear.
Dr Lear, an associate professor of kinesiology at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, said the findings had far-reaching implications, since they suggested that Asians considered a healthy size by internationally accepted body measurement standards might in fact be dangerously overweight.
'If Chinese people get as fat or as big as Europeans, they'll actually experience a much greater risk for diabetes and heart disease,' he said. 'And that's a concern because obesity is increasing at a faster rate in China than it is in a lot of the western countries.'