I find it disappointing that Cecil’s language skills are so limited that he feels the need to use slurs like lardbucket.
I strongly doubt he would use words like “bitch” to describe a woman, or “moneylender” to describe a Jew, or “coon” to describe an African-American. So I’m left to wonder why he finds it to be apropos to slur overweight people.
I agree that it was a poor choice of words, but I guess the perception is that being overweight not in the same category as the other groups you mentioned, since it is generally considered to be unhealthy and and to some degree controllable.
I was more interested in the comment about coffee may cause high blood pressure. What’s the deal with that? I know for years, people have thought coffee must be bad for you, but I didn’t think anything was proven.
I’m pretty sure nothing is proven. As someone who personally feeds and clothes several Columbian villages with his caffeine habit, I try to stay up on the research, and I believe the only thing that’s pretty well established is a negative correlation between caffeine intake and suicide: The Brown Goddess makes life worth living. So, Cecil, as we say in GD: Cite?
Personally, I think “lardbucket” is perfectly appropriate to describe someone that thinks that one gets more excercise by being out of shape, as the term clearly refers to the sort of matter that dominates their cerebral cavity. 
Of course, Cecil has a reverse corralation here…everyone knows that its not fattness that makes one inactive, but inactivity that makes one fat…
“As a rule, as obesity increases, activity decreases”
Cecil, why the over-generalization of body builders? I’m sure there are tons of idiots out there but a quick visit to any weight training related website will show you that today’s builders concentrate on WHOLE body fitness. I just started recently and thought I was about to have my head bitten off by asking how I can get big the fastest. The replies ranged anywhere from rants about people wanting the “quick fix” to a speech on why you can workout all you’d like but if your diet stinks then your body will still look poorly. My point is that I did not appreciate being “lumped” into some stereotypical image Cecil has running around his normally brilliant mind of what weight lifters are all about. It’s mind, body and soul these days Cecil. Not just getting ripped @ all costs.
KC
You guys do realize that the column in question is 20 years old, right?
You guys do realize that the column in question is 20 years old, right?
Yeah, they seem to be posting a lot of old columns. In 1983, the largest serving of fries available at McDonalds was the one that is now called “regular”, and weight hadn’t yet become the pride/shame issue of vast proportions that it is now.
Cecil mentions the fact that caffeine increases blood pressure, but doesn’t really elaborate. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor – it causes blood vessels to become narrower. This causes a significant increase in blood pressure, which is probably counterproductive for aerobic exercise. I’m not sure if the use of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine by bodybuilders was as common when the column was written as it has been more recently – nor am I sure exactly what they are used for in bodybuilding – but both those drugs are also vasoconstrictors, and are better at it than caffeine is. They’re also bronchiodilators – they expand the passages in the lungs – which would increase oxygen intake, but I’m not sure if that effect is offset by the vasoconstriction or not.
Caffeine and the other two drugs have a synergistic effect; they combine to produce very large increases in body temperature and heart rate. I think there’s a lot of tradeoffs here – some of the effects are good from an exercise point of view, some are bad.
Those who do use caffeine et al. for fitness reasons use it in combination with real physical exercise, not as a substitute for it. I would imagine that it would have to be used very carefully to do more good than harm.