Can Your Genes Determine the Size of Your Jeans?

A recent report in Chinese Medicine News said studies reveal genes determine where your fat is stored.

Ethnicity, said the study, controls fat storage.

Based on this evidence, current measuring techniques for healthy body fat are not effective, say researchers. Once we're talking storage, (because the fat can "hide" inside organs and reveal itself later as heart disease, high blood pressure and other illnesses), you need samples from hard-to-get-at places to diagnose and treat.

It is for this reason that researchers were surprised to find that Chinese and South Asians are at greater risk for heart disease, than their European neighbors.

The most accurate form of fat measurement thus far then, say researchers, is waist circumference, because it is the best way to determine abdominal visceral adipose tissue mass, linked to heart-related illnesses. If the amount of visceral adipose tissue stored in the intraabdominal cavity (waist area) is more than 40 inches, or 100 centimeters, it is considered a high risk for heart disease.