The metabolic syndrome was defined using a modifiedversion of the definition recommended by the American HeartAssociation (Alberti et al., 2009). The presence of any 3 out of5 of the following risk factors would qualify a person for themetabolic syndrome: (1) elevated waist circumference (man ≥85 cm, woman ≥80 cm), (2) elevated triglycerides ≥1.7 mmol/Lor use of medication for dyslipidemia, (3) reduced HDL-C(males