ABSTRACT
The incidence of obesity and metabolic syndrome in the United States has reached an epidemic level and has increased in prevalence even among our nation’s youth.1 In addition, athletes in some sports like American football and basketball are larger than ever and would be considered obese by conventional body mass index (BMI) and/or percent body fat criteria.2 A recent study examining the prevalence of markers of metabolic syndrome in 70 Division I, II, and III American football players found a disturbing incidence of athletes with abdominal adiposity, high percent body fat, and low high-density lipoproteins (HDL).3 In addition, they had high blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, fasting cholesterol, and serum triglycerides.3 In terms of blood lipids, the researchers found that 46% of the athletes had total cholesterol to HDL ratios greater than 5.0, 17% of the athletes had total cholesterol above 200 mg/dL, and
8.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 235 8.2 General Lipid Metabolism ............................................................................ 236
8.2.1 Dietary Lipids ................................................................................... 236 8.2.2 Digestion and Absorption ................................................................. 237 8.2.3 Lipid Transport ................................................................................. 238 8.2.4 Endogenous Production ....................................................................240 8.2.5 Reverse Cholesterol Transport ..........................................................240
