Ethnicity and energy stores.

The primary storage form of energy within humans is fat, which accumulates in adipose tissue including the subcutaneous, omental, mesenteric, retroperitoneal, and mammary depots. Although it has been known for some time that the size of these depots varies with sex, age, and physiologic state, it has only recently been suggested that adipose tissue partitioning, and therefore energy storage, may vary among ethnic groups. Indicators of ethnicity include race, place of birth, and culture and traditions. The literature describing energy storage in North American Indians, African Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, and Pacific Islanders is summarized and data are presented from studies comparing African American and Caucasian (Americans of Northern European descent) obese women. It is proposed that, for the purpose of research, physiologic characteristics and not ethnicity should be the basic factors used to recruit human study volunteers until we obtain mechanisms to discriminate genotype and to relate phenotype to energy storage.