'Functional' body composition: differentiating between benign and non-benign obesity.
Recent body composition analyses, together with assessments of insulin resistance, aerobic fitness, and intima-media thickness of the common carotid artery, have shown that metabolically-benign obese subjects have a similar BMI, waist circumference, and subcutaneous abdominal fat compared with non-metabolically-benign obese subjects. Research has suggested that 25-30% of the obese population do not need either treatment or prevention of secondary disorders. Therefore, assessment of functional body composition should replace nutritional status-based risk assessments (such as the body mass index) in both metabolic research and clinical decision making. The concept of 'functional' body composition gives us a more sophisticated view on nutritional status, metabolism, endocrinology, and diseases. Knowledge of detailed body composition enables characterization of biomedical traits which will give functional evidence relating genetic variants.
Institut für Humanernährung und Lebensmittelkunde, Agrar- und Ernährungswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Düsternbrooker Weg 17-19, D-24105 Kiel, Germany. mmueller@nutrfoodsc.uni-kiel.de
Manfred J
MJ
Müller
Anja
A
Bosy-Westphal
Martin
M
Heller