"South Asians face increased heart risk"

Damn. More motivation to work out?

The same yellow fat that hugs Ashok's heart also surrounds his other organs. This abdominal, or visceral fat, is much more active – and dangerous – than the fat found under your skin. It acts like a furnace to produce toxic fumes in the body, decreasing insulin sensitivity, reducing good cholesterol levels and raising blood pressure, all of which are risk factors for heart disease.

Sonia Anand, an associate professor of medicine at McMaster University and an international expert on the links between ethnicity and heart disease and diabetes, says South Asians are more likely to get visceral fat than any other ethnic group, even if they eat and exercise the same. People of South Asian descent are also more apt to have the same array of risk factors for heart disease as Caucasians, but at about 45 pounds lighter, she says.