Supermodel Carol Alt appears nude in December's Playboy

"I just never thought to do it," says Ms. Alt, 47, in an interview this week from her New York apartment.

"There's a saying I always remember when I started working: At 20, you have the face you're born with, at 30 you have the face you work for and at 50 you have the face you deserve."

Ms. Alt says posing nude at her age - she turns 48 in two weeks - "ain't easy," but she adds, "it's only easy if you have an edge and my edge is raw food." She has been on a strict raw food regimen for 14 years.

"The reason I showed my body is because my body would not have been like this if it hadn't been for the fact that I had gone raw," says Ms. Alt, adding that before she had a physical makeover with a raw food diet, she was overweight, bloated and always felt bad.  

The decision to pose nude for Playboy came this past February after consulting with longtime boyfriend Alexei Yashin and her family, she says.

"I want people to know that after 40, it's not the end of your life. Life goes on. You can feel good, look good, be beautiful and sexy and that's all an attitude which comes from health."

The photo shoot was done in June over a three-day period in Ballast Key, a 26-acre private island estate off the coast of Florida.

She worked with Timothy White, a celebrated American celebrity photographer whose current book, The Hollywood Pinups, features movie stars such as Cindy Crawford, Kate Hudson and Susan Sarandon in sexy poses.

In the eight-page photo spread titled In the Raw, Ms. Alt is shown cavorting on the beach, sitting on a deck chair wearing a bright orange hat (her favourite shot) and several shots of her sprawled on a bed - Alexei's favourite. She said while thousands of photos were taken, she was comfortable knowing that she had the final veto over which ones were chosen for the magazine.