Let the tapeworms 'live' in you

I know someone who doesn't eat rice for months just to stay in shape. I know someone who has studied various types of diets ( Fat Flush diet, Atkins diet, vegetarian diet, crash diet, etcetera), and finally tried Atkins (she could just bear with it for a few months). I read about people with bulimia and anorexia, who suffer for fearing of weight gain. All wish for a thin and slim body- a typical beauty asset.

Yet, today, I've just come across a strange type (actually it's the strangest one for me so far) of diet people follow in the name of beauty. It's called tapeworm diet. By looking at its name, ermm...well, yes, tapeworms are consumed in order to lose weight.

A nine-inch-long tapeworm that came out of a cat. It was still alive when this picture was taken.
Photo by www.dogbreedinfo.com

This disgusting beauty regimen was popular in England during the 1800s. You might ask, how this weird diet works? The traditional way of becoming infected with a tapeworm is by eating raw meat, being in contact with infected faeces and other foods containing tapeworms. However, for dieting purposes, people would swallow pills containing sanitized tapeworm larvae, which would reside in their stomachs. People become a host, and tapeworms use them by attaching suckers to their stomachs and feeding on the foods they eat. It's like the food you eat is split between your own body and that of tapeworm. After being ingested, the tapeworm makes its way out of the body with bowel movements. People have been known to take drugs to reduce the lifespan of the worms, so when it's removed from the body, it's already dead. Euwww.

Not only it's disgusting, the diet is actually proven to be dangerous to one's health. Tapeworms are foreign living animals, and they are not intelligent or obedient. Tapeworms are also parasites, that can result in vitamin deficiencies. They eat not only your calories, but also the nutrients. Additionally, it's also possible for tapeworms to deviate into other parts of your body through blood system, even your brain, where of course it can have deadly results!

Letting this foreign animal reside in your body can possibly lead to death
Credit to Google

Thankfully this diet is no more in practice nowadays, since its effects to health are disastrous.

P/s: I'm amazed at how far people can go just to stay beautiful.