What is the difference between nudism and naturism?

What is the difference between nudism and naturism?

On this website about Cap d’Agde we frequently use the terms nudists and naturists in addition to each other and the associated terms nudism and naturism. But what is the difference between those two. Many people think that this is exactly the same. This is only partly true, naturism is more than nudism.

What is nudism?
Nudists like being naked and thus like to take off their clothes. This can be done indoors in one’s own environment, but it is much more pleasant to do this outdoors. Alone or together with other people who like this too. There are nudist associations, where you can go swimming together naked, or bowling without clothes and many other activities are often organized where they can be naked together.
In a sense, you could say that people who only go to the nude sauna are also nudists. They show themselves bare and see other people who recreate naked. The step from a nude sauna to the nude beach is not that big.

What is naturism?
Like nudists, naturists find it very pleasant to recreate naked. This can be done in exactly the same places as where the nudists recreate. When it comes to being naked, there isn’t much difference between nudists and naturists. But naturism is actually more of a lifestyle. You could also say that nudism is part of naturism, but the last mentioned involves a lot more that only being naked.

Naturists often feel part of nature and respect nature in many ways. This expresses itself in respect to themselves, fellow human beings, animals, insects and everything that nature has to offer. They prefer to be completely naked in nature, which makes them feel much more connected to nature. Relatively many naturists are also vegetarians, because killing animals for consumption is inconsistent with their thoughts about respecting nature. Some of them are even vegans.

A true vegan uses no animal products at all. They ignore meat, eggs, honey, dairy or other products in which animals are processed or used. This does not only apply to food, but also to clothing, care products or other materials and products that contain animal products.
Incidentally, it is certainly not the case that all naturists, are vegetarians or vegans. And vice versa, it is not the case that vegetarians or vegans are always naturists as a result. In principle, the two have nothing to do with each other, but the percentage of vegetarians and vegans among naturists is considerably higher than among non-naturists.

Swingers
Finally, we would like to point out that both nudism and naturism have nothing to do with sex. The fact they like to be naked and possibly like to see naked people around them is completely separate from erotic activities or desires. This is in great contrast with the swingers lifestyle.
Swingers like to party all night long and have sex with as many other couples as possible and often they don’t care a lot about nature. For that reason swingers in Cap d’Agde are not very much appreciated by nudist and naturists. But nudist and naturists are losing this battle in Cap d’Agde. The percentage of swingers in Cap d’Agde has increased a lot the past twenty years and we estimate that at least 50% of the visitors are into swinging.

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