In an article published in the ARCHIVES, Kim et al1 have shown that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is closely associated with metabolic disorders, even in nonobese, nondiabetic subjects. Thus, NAFLD can be considered an early predictor of metabolic disorders, particularly in the normal-weight population.
However, this study was severely flawed by taking the criteria for overweight and obesity that is not representative of people living in the Asia-Pacific region. While the authors chose to take the values to define the waist circumference in Asians according to the World Health Organization (WHO) perspective on the western Pacific region for Asians,2 they, however, did not take the values to define overweight and obesity laid down by the same steering committee.2