Re: Can lack of lipids in the body cause a illness?

yes !
there are all sorts of ways this can happen, because there are so many 
things you can describe as "lipids".

Bear in minds that some of the vitamins (retinoic acid, etc) are lipids. 
Cholesterol is essential. Long chain fatty acids of various sorts are 
required for health.

another way of looking at this is the peroxisomal disorders; these are 
diseases where the body fails to handle long chain fatty acids/ steroids 
well. There are a whole series of related inherited diseases, e.g. 
Zellweger's disease.

cheers
david