Having junk in your trunk is healthier than a spare tire around the gut, new research suggests. The extra padding on the backside and thighs could even help to protect against disease.

The results come from a review that summarizes various studies on the health effects of different fat stores in the body, particularly around the hips and thighs.

"The fact that body fat's distribution is quite important for your health has been known for some time now," said lead researcher Konstantinos Manolopoulos of the University of Oxford in England. But this new article summarizes a body of research showing that such hip and thigh fat can help to reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease. The review also suggests a mechanism for conveying those benefits.

The next step is to figure out how our bodies decide where to store fat, say, in the stomach versus the butt. "Once this is understood then one could think about therapeutic approaches to make use of that," Manolopoulos told LiveScience. "Maybe to make use [of it] in a preventive way by redistributing the fat."...