Better Ideas From France: Naturists as Diet Plan Assistants

"Presenting the butt-naked diet?"
Oddly Enough Reuters blog (August 6, 2009)

"People often say to me, 'Bob, how do you stay so thin?'

"Of course they’re just being sarcastic and cruel, but it happens I am on an unusual diet these days, and expect to be ready for a Cape Cod beach vacation by November.

"My secret? I've gone on the 'Live with saggy naked people diet.'

"It's easy. You just live for a few weeks in a resort for 'naturists,' which is what wrinkly naked people call themselves these days, and you go where they go...."

I was born in the Truman administration, so I think of people like this as "nudists."

I think it's a bit inaccurate to refer to all naturists/nudists/whatever as "saggy naked people' - but the writer has a point.

First, since it's possible that you have, for philosophical or other reasons, decided to walk around without clothes now and again: try not to be offended. Nudism / naturism / or whatever is a bit off the 50th percentile when it comes to lifestyle - and that sort of thing does, like it or not - get noticed.

Naturists in the photo I linked to aren't that badly out of shape, actually: there's another photo, showing a number of them (mercifully from the rear) lined up at a food counter that makes the writer's point a bit better. For people living in the early years of the Information Age, they're in reasonably good condition.

People Wear Clothes for a Reason

But they're also walking demonstrations for why the rest of us wear clothes. Aside from giving us a measure of protection against solar-heated auto seats, sharp corners, and the jolt of ultraviolet radiation you'll get in sunlight.

I know: humans are slightly photosynthetic: we use UVB to make vitamin D. That's EM radiation with wavelengths between 320 and 280 nanometers. Sunlight is good for you, and it damages your skin after a while.

I've got the same genetic melanin deficiency that those naturists have, so although I see to it that I get a few minutes exposure most days, I don't try to get a 'healthy tan.'

And, judging from the distinctly pasty look of some of the naturists, neither do they. Smart people.

Those photos were taken at the Heliomarin Centre in Montalivet, France, according to the blog.

And, getting back to the topic of that post: you're not very hungry now, are you? See? It works!

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