Is going barefoot well-mannered for you?
Answers: Yes, it is! It is NOT dangerous or gross; foot get tremendously tough very immediately. I've been barefoot everywhere for over ten years, normally at a run, and I've NEVER cut my feet. Even a tiny splinter happen only roughly once a year (which has NEVER happen indoors at all, and is a fraction of the splinters I obtain in my hand gardening and such). About germs, our skin is made to keep pathogens out, and unless you put your foot on the dinner table or lick your toes, you're at very little risk, far smaller quantity than the risk of picking something up from the less distinct but no less germy things we touch beside our hands... doorknobs, shopping cart, railings... Parasites, the hookworm hasn't be a problem in the South since modern plumbing have replaced the outhouses and never was a serious problem within cooler climates. If you're in tropical third-world countries lice may still be a serious threat, but if you're in North America or Europe, see source.
About going barefoot on easier said than done surfaces, here's a piece from "Survey in China and India of Feet That Have Never Worn Shoes":
One hundred and eighteen of those interviewed be rickshaw coolies. Because these men spend very long hours respectively day on cobblestone or other complex roads pulling their passengers at a run it be of particular interest to survey them. If anything, their foot were more unblemished than the others. All of them, however, gave a history of much throbbing and swelling of the foot and ankle during the first few days of work as a rickshaw puller. But after either a rest of two days or a week's more work on their foot, the pain and swelling passed away and never returned again. There is no occupation more strenuous for the foot than trotting a rickshaw on hard pavement for various hours each year yet these men do it in need pain or pathology.
About getting a cold: we're more plausible to catch a cold when our core heat drops, but not when just our foot are uncovered and exposed to the cold, any more than exposing our hands to the cold is unfavourable. I've been much, much more in shape since I started barefooting; I've learned how my body works and can walk barefoot without trouble even surrounded by snow. I used to be sickly from early stumble until late spring, sniffling and sneezing no concern what I tried. For these past ten years I've call in sick once (for adjectives of two days, and it wasn't even in winter), and even a minor cough is irregular. While I never believed the myths that barefooting is *un*healthy, I hadn't expected those results but it's sure done excellent for me.
I don't know, but I've been doing it profusely lately because I usually walk around surrounded by scrubs around the city barefoot. o_O
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