Jeremy ( 9 years ago )
, discussion on this topic is cetalinry appropriate since the current state of the AANR membership mirrors that of American society as a whole, meaning far too many of us are seriously overweight.  It is particularly ironic for the AANR membership to have this problem, given that the modern nudist movement was founded on principles of wellness and hygiene.  Additionally, I believe our emphasis on “body acceptance” helps mask the problem and almost encourages a failure to recognize and deal with this serious health issue and all the myriad serious medical conditions that accompany it.  You and I may “accept” your body in a spirit of community, good cheer, non-judgmentalism, and tolerance, but obesity remains a serious (perhaps mortal) threat to your health.  “Body acceptance” won’t save you from Metabolic Syndrome.Each month in The Bulletin, and in our activities in camp, we see lots of smiling people with serious weight issues.  Do these people choose to be obese?  I believe in most cases, they do not, and would prefer to be of normal weight.  The problem is not desire; I suspect many of these people have tried, perhaps repeatedly, the conventional wisdom “calories in, calories out” approach of extreme diets and draconian exercise regimens, and have found these methods unsustainable over the long term, and thus largely ineffective or even counter-productive, as exercise stimulates more of an appetite.  I would suggest these folks are obese because they don’t understand why they are obese, and thus have no idea for how to get lean.  What is needed is a new (actually, old) approach, one that recognizes the problem as one of hormonal and metabolic disturbance caused by one’s mode of eating.  There is plenty of evidence that the bulk of the answer, for most people at least, is a proper diet, avoiding grains (especially wheat in all its forms), sugar, unhealthy heavily processed vegetable oils, fried foods, and easily digestible carbohydrates.  In other words, avoiding what composes the bulk of the modern American diet.  In place of these, we should eat meats, fish, leafy vegetables, some tubers, nuts, good quality cheese, etc.By being courageous enough to challenge the conventional wisdom on obesity, and to stop obsessing  about dietary fat, and instead to start worrying (a lot) about carbohydrate, you may be amazed at your weight loss and banishment of “that stubborn belly fat”, particularly if your diet changes are combined with a sensible, moderate, and sustainable level of increased physical activity.  All the authors listed below make a simple suggestion – faithfully try the dietary/activity changes suggested for a month or two or three, and if you don’t feel better and haven’t lost some weight (maybe quite a bit of weight), you can always go back to what you were doing before.I would challenge AANR to promote a return to our roots in the area of hygiene; let’s make 2013 the year to emphasize fitness and weight loss   - a return to health.  For much more detailed information, I would suggest reference to the following:1.“Wheat Belly” by William Davis, M.D.2.“The Paleo Blueprint” by Mark Sisson3. “Why We Get Fat, and What To Do About It” by Gary Taubes4. “The Paleo Solution – The Original Human Diet” by Robb Wolf5. “Good Calories, Bad Calories – Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease” by Gary Taubes