Incidentally, the second study talks about lower core body temperature being associated with greater longevity, which is probably one of the reasons for the claims you mentioned encountering before about lower body temperature being healthier. I think I read somewhere that higher body temp is associated with greater fertility, physical development and athletic prowess. If all these correlations are real, then the ideal body temperature depends on whether one's goals are maximum longevity or fertility/development or in-between.

Diet and Eating Patterns and Problems That Brought Me Here

I am doing the entire thread reading at this point but am only about 20% through.  The reason I began it is because I am a meat lover, vegetable hater (for the most part), fruit lover especially if it is high mountain fruits.  However, during my middle years, I have taken to also loving carbs as in potatoes, pasta and crackers (along with some breads).  This has been devastating to my weight, and I am now obese (about 50 pounds over weight).  Several years ago I decided I was "allergic" to carbs which meant that they were doing me a disservice in that I felt ill whenever I ate them.

In fact, I was experimenting on foods, and one test I did involved bread.  I found I gained weight whenever I ate bread.  But I scoffed at that idea and thought that it was a one time reaction.  So I decided to show myself that it didn't make any difference.  So I decided to have a sandwich every day for lunch.  Others do it:  Why can't I?  Day 1, I gained 1 pound.  Day 2 I gained one pound.  So after gaining five pounds in five days, I decided to cut the bread to a one slice sandwich.  Day 6, I gained one pound.  Day 7, I gained one pound and on to day 9 where I had finally gained ten pounds.  I decided that I was right:  Bread was bad for me.  But I was also sure that, by cutting bread, my body would take over and readjust.  That was a wrong conclusion!  It took me nearly a month and a half to lose that weight!    After that, I decided that I would eat bread only occasionally or not at all.

Then I also tried that same practice with potatoes--one or two a day.  My family raised potatoes in Idaho for decades, and surely they were not going to hurt me.  I was wrong.  Again, I gained weight (though not as bad).

Pasta might have been the worst.  I tried it for three days, I think I recall gaining five pounds.   That was a quit immediately reaction.

I then did an intestinal cleanse thinking that I had a build up lots of gunk in my system.  I should have lost weight, but I was gaining!  I discovered that the bulk they were using was a type of wheat.  It not only made me feel sick and full, but it again made me gain weight.

So I was tested for allergies to wheat.  There is no indication I am celiac.

When my son died unexpectedly three years ago, then my mother became ill, and my mother in law died (shortly thereafter my mother died), I found I had suddenly acquired a very high sugar reading.

Several months later, I went to a doctor about my health issues including the fact that I was having memory problems.  (This is consistent with several things including high weight, loss of loved ones and Alzheimers Disease.)  They assured me that, on their "diet" to cure my ills, I would lose a lot of weight suggesting 15-20 in a couple of weeks (which seemed a bit rash for me).  I gained two pounds.  The doctor was amazed and perplexed.  I was bilked and promptly quit him.

Then I tried Dr. Simeon's diet.  On 500 calories PLUS hcg, I was able to lose weight.  Without the hcg, I did not lose.  But as soon as I quit it, I was on the train to gain, and I could not stop that train or get off or slow it.  I was back up within weeks to the weight I had prior to the diet.  I tried Simeon's diet again and again, but I still could not maintain my lower weight though I did lose fabulously.  I finally figured out why, and I have corrected that problem in my most recent of five tries to lose weight.  If I can bear to do it again, I think I will be able to maintain the loss this time.  But 500 calories is a rough eating pattern, and when I do it, I must be very, very strict with what I eat and very regimented.  I am not so good at that.  I don't like to feel weak from lack of food or feed sick from withdrawals.  I also don't like the nervousness that seems to accompany quick weight loss.  But it is a way for me.

I am still looking for a way of eating that will work for me for the remainder of my life.  Nothing so far done has changed my extremely great ability to store fat, and I continue to be a storage facility.

Recently I received an email about how pigs are being fed a particular supplement that keeps their intestinal tract from getting dangerous, contagious diarrhea.  (I raise beef cattle, and this was about feed.)  I have been told that everything that your system needs runs through your intestinal tract, and if it is not healthy, you're not healthy.  As a result, I have been considering that the fix needs to, at least, start there.  So I began to look it up to see what that product did.  And this is how I found Lex Rooker.

I have been told that meat will cause cancer.  I am a meat lover, and this is not good news to me.  I have been known to eat only meat in a day's time because it satisfies my hunger, and I don't want anything else to eat when I am full on meat.  But since being told that meat causes cancer, I've been inclined to cut some of it from my diet.  I even considered, briefly and with great trepedation, changing to a vegetarian or vegan.  But veggies are just unappealing to me, and they neither taste good or fill me up--and then there is the fact that I can't grow all my own, so I don't much want to eat the chemicals that I know are in them. 

But here is Lex Rooker who is eating a lot of meat, and although it is common that men do have prostate problems (and Lex did not have the best start in his life with all the problems he encountered as a young child), this proclamation that meat causes cancer might not be true.

In coming here, I also discovered Owlsley "Bear" Stanley.  I am in the process of reading his views on meat eating (about 25% through).  It is fascinating that he was almost entirely a meat eater--I say this because he also ate some chilis, cheese, garlic and other spices though he said he ate only 5% carbs (which seems correct from what I see in his diet).  I also noticed that he had cancer (though it was finally attributed to the HPV in his tonsils) which caused destruction of half of his vocal cords.  He also had a coronary bypass.  This is also a threat from the powers that be to meat eaters, and my dad died of a massive heart attack as well as my uncle, and my aunt has had a bypass, and my cousin (age 61) had a small heart attack also.  My great grandmother also had heart issues.  Dad was a big meat eater, but he was a big eater of everything.  He was 280 when he died and about 25% over weight.

I have done Atkins prior to most of my fight with obesity, and I have re-considered trying it again with more meat and fat and less veggies.  The last time I did Atkins, I found that eating more than 20 carbs a day made me not lose weight, and eating more than 35 made me gain!  So much for Atkins and 100 carbs a day.  Bear said Atkins sold out, and I tend to agree, at least for me, he did because his set points on carbs are way too high for me.

But I realize that, for me, eating meat is likely going to be an answer to my problem.  I like it, it agrees with me, and if I had to eat only one food type, I would eat meat (though nuts would be a hard giveaway).   It matters little.  I will be required to eat meat, and if, eating it, I can become thinner, then I will be happy.  If it shortens my life (as suggested) then I will have to live a shorter life.  However, I believe obesity is more likely to shorten my life because of the fat and extremely insulin that my body seems to want to produce when I eat carbs.  (I have had a BG of 545 at one time.)

One more point I would like to make about vegetables and other kinds of food.  Increasingly, the big companies (Monsanto) are stepping into production of plants.  They have created GMO products that we are to eat without knowledge of their safety.  They have created bug poisons that we are to eat without knowledge of their safety.  Farmers have no choice in many cases whether or not to use their products, and frankly, it seems to me that these products are showing themselves to be not good for a body.  I believe more like Bear that our bodies were likely not meant to eat vegetables on a regular basis (in spite of the threats by vegans and vegetarians that it is extremely dangerous to eat meat and the FDA that insists that vegetables are required for a healthy lifestyle).  I have also concluded that dairy (also a highly manipulated and covered up industry) is generally not for adults which is another idea that Bear had.   However, eating meat that is from the feedlot (another highly manipulated product) is, IMHO, not wisdom.  I know what the feedlots put in their meat, and I do not believe the FDA's promise that the meat is free of the chemicals after short periods.  I will note that few ranchers eat feedlot beef, and you would be surprised how many of them live to be in their 80s and 90s.  Therefore, we elected to grow our own beeves, and I believe it is safer and wiser to eat meat from animals that are not given chemicals in the last few weeks of their lives.

Yesterday I restarted Atkins.  The last time I so craved carbs in the first few weeks that I couldn't continue.  I anticipate that this will happen again.  I am not sure how to deal with that, and so I thought I might, this time, eat carbs for a meal or eat small amounts of carbs when I am craving them badly.  I suppose, over time, I can incline myself to quit them because IMHO they are like a drug, and quitting them becomes such a severe craving that it is hard to resist and hard to overcome.  I am not sure how that will work, but at least it will help me take off some of my weight which scares me.  I am not at all inclined to suffer, and I don't do suffering well, and unlike Lex, I have not been a marathon runner, and in fact, discovered I have what is called Exercise Asthma (which means that highly stressing my lungs causes them to do poorly).  This adds another problem to my issues with obesity.

Family Health History

My great grandmother was warned ten years before her death that she was either going to take off the weight (she was more obese than I am) or she would not live another two years.  She lost most of it, and she died a relatively thin woman.  She also had been a big meat eater, and like dad, enjoyed her food.  She had been diagnosed with arrthymia.  My great grandmother, Granny Drake, lived to be 97.  Her daughter, my grandmother Nell, died at 84.  My dad (and his brother) died of massive heart attacks while in their early 50s.  No one else in the family of eight died prior to their 70s (with my last uncle on my dad's side (the last of the boys and the youngest) having died in his mid 70s).  My oldest aunt, Alice Marie, died of pancreatic cancer at 83.  Second oldest, Charlotte is still alive but did have a bypass.  Jackie and Della Jane died from Alzheimers complications in their early 80s and late 70s respectively.  Pat, my uncle died from lymphoma at 75.  (Cancer in my family is minimal and differentiated in types.  I am told it could well be because the family lived in Idaho when the atomic clouds passed over there which some attribute to higher cancer rates.)  Heart issues are more prevalent on my dad's side of the family.

My mother's father, Otto, had lower than normal blood temperature--in the 97 degree range from my recollection.  He was 80 when he had a stroke and died a few weeks later.  His wife, Elizabeth, died at about 82 from a combination of Parkinson's and poor care at the nursing home.  My mother's sister got cervical cancer and died at about 55.  My mother's brother is in his 90s and still alive last I heard.  My mother died 10/20/10 at 90 from improper care in the hospital.  She did not have any health issues that are inherited (except possibly cataracts) and had a slight stroke.

A Little of My Health Information

I was diagnosed with arrthymia when I was pregnant with my second son.  I had not been diagnosed with it prior to that time, and the MD that diagnosed me said that it was not uncommon for a woman to get arrthymia during pregnancy and often it did not continue.  I have noticed that I do still have arrthymia, but it has now become a longer, faster than normal heartbeat at times--a racing feeling (which is how it has always felt) that has increased in length of time.

Until my 4th son, I had maintained my weight at about 140-150, and at 5'5", that is just a little over weight.  With my 4th son, I gained 50 pounds and could not take it off after the c-section.  I discovered after about ten years of wondering why I couldn't lose the weight, much to my chagrin,  that the doctors cut women's stomach muscles and do not repair them after a c section.  Since a person's core muscles are some of the most used muscles in their body (and the largest), it was no wonder I gained and could not lose.  I had lost the function of these large muscles that helped me use the energy I was eating.  Therefore, I could not lose a pound, and I eventually gained another 30 pounds.  (I have considered a tummy tuck which would sew those muscles together again, but I was told that it can create more problems than the ones I have.  I am not sure of that, but I have hesitated so far.)

With the increased care of the elderly these days, I imagine I should live to be at least 90; however, with the insulin problems I have and with the increased weight, I may not if I cannot fix that problem.  And with the heart issues in my family, it is probably a good idea to get my weight down.  Eating solely/mainly meat might be my answer.  So I am now in the process of researching it. 

Like Lex, I am an avid researcher, and I do not start on a project without doing a lot of research and knowing what I am doing.  So this is my first foray into the art of eating meat as a sole (or mostly sole) dietary experience.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Your comment (above) was something I needed to respond to because of my own experience.  Although I cannot speak for the majority of others, only myself, what you say you thought you read that high body temperature means better fertility is IMHO a fallacy for women.

My normal body temperature is 97.6 although it seems to be getting lower in the last few years and now tests even at 97.4 (maybe the type of thermometer they are now using).  When I take it orally myself, even when I feel like I have a temperature, it is no more than 98.4 normally.  If I take it when I feel well, it is always in the 97s.

When I was younger (I am Lex's age), I could stand by a man and get pregnant.  I used all kinds of birth control methods, and I would get pregnant immediately if I didn't carefully meet the requirements of the device or pill.  I have had eight or nine pregnancies; however, I have also had only four children (probably because of the damage done to my uterus during my first delivery).

Therefore, I do not believe that a low body temperature is indicative of infertility. 

I do believe I have, as a family history, a lower basal metabolic rate.  I have found also that doing the patch test, I absorb the iodine within four to seven hours.  I have done it twice in two days now, and this morning, I put the iodine on my skin at about 7, and it is 11, and very light now.  It will probably be gone in another two or three hours.  Although I have painted myself with iodine, consistency is not my forte, and so I do it as I remember or am reminded, although the spot has never lasted 24 hours on me.

I am very interested in changing my diet to meat only (or mostly), so I will be continue to read about Lex’s progress and how he has managed his meat only diet.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.  I do believe that experiences that people have with diets are a great way to discover what is best for a person’s body and to change to help yourself stay healthy.  I am not afraid of death, but if I had my choice, it would be after a long, healthy life.



Questions for Lex Rooker:

Could it be possible that Bear (Owlsley) had a heart attack from eating meat which caused arthrosclerosis?  Do you have any indications that you have artery problems?  If not, do you have any history of this in your family?  What reasons would you attribute to your having/not having heart issues?  Do you believe meat causes heart attacks eventually?

Is it possible that meat has caused your prostate problem?  Could it be that the prostate is particularly sensitive to the chemicals in meat (from the feedlot) and that eating “organic” or “all natural” meat would be best?

Would it be a good idea to include herbs in your regimen for prostate problems?  http://www.steadyhealth.com/articles/Top_Ten_Herbs_for_Prostate_Health_a1435.html