Latest diet crazy: The Tapeworm Diet!!!!

[apples and oranges]

We can all admit to going to great lengths, even if just once, to lose those unwanted pounds. But the Tapeworm Diet has to get as extreme and desperate as the world of dieting tricks and methods come. The good news is that importing or selling tapeworms in the U.S. is illegal. Tapeworms though, do occur in undercooked beef or raw meat dishes which are prone to contamination.

So what does a tapeworm in your gut actually do? It secretes proteins in our intestinal tract that make our digestion of food much less efficient. A less efficient digestive systems means that you can consume more calories through your food since your "body guest" is also noshing on them for his own growth purposes. Some scientists estimate that those infected with a single tapeworm can lose up to one or two pounds each week.

PRO

* Weight loss is pretty much guaranteed
* A scientist in Japan believes that tapeworms can also help clear up allergies like hay fever

CON

* Can be deadly
* Banned by the FDA
* Medical intervention may be needed to get rid of the tapeworm
* There are side effects to having a tapeworm
* Can't purchase or import one
* Once you get rid of the tapeworm, you risk putting weight back if you continue eating like you have a tapeworm

http://www.dietsinreview.com/diets/Tapeworm_Diet/

Has anyone here tried this yet?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Wasn't this a Tracey Ullman sketch??

[csziggy]

10. It was a House episode n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Yeah, but I am pretty sure Tracey Ullman did the "tapeworm as diet aid" thing years ago.

[csziggy]

30. She easily could have - I haven't seen a Tracy Ullman skit in 30 years.

:shrug:

[Peacetrain]

2. You know there will be someone desperate enought to lose weight to do that

[applegrove]

3. Those rumours are old. They were around when I was a kid 30 years ago.

[Mz Pip]

5. I remember that

There were these capsules from Mexico that had some kind of worm in them that was supposedly great for weightloss.

I just gave our kitten a pill to get rid of his tapeworms. They were gross.

[applegrove]

7. Your poor cats. Yuk. I don't remember the pill though..just the story of

people injesting tapeworms to stay skinny.

[Bunny]

4. Yeah, I have.

I've been using one for about two years. I'm losing two pounds a week. I now weigh twelve pounds. My goal weight is seven pounds. Five more to go! :woohoo:

[SoCalDem]

6. That one goes waaaaaaay back n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

12. Charlatans were selling tapeworm larvae in gels during the Nineteenth Century as a weight loss

remedy. Consumers would die with 24 miles of tapeworms in their intestines. Or something like that.

There is evidence of advertising, from the late 19th and early 20th century, hawking "sanitized tapeworms" to help women maintain a slim figure. Whether the pills sold actually contained tapeworms or whether women actually ingested them hoping to acquire a tapeworm is difficult to verify. Such a pill would likely contain the cyst part of the tapeworm's lifecycle, but one would imagine that cultivating a large supply of these would make for a rather unpleasant day's work.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/tapeworm-weight-loss2.htm

[Warpy]

8. I know a doctor who tried this one

and ran into real trouble with nutrient deficiencies. The combination of that and the poison it takes to kill a tapeworm nearly killed him.

I had a cat who barfed one up, the grossest thing I've ever seen and I was a nurse for 25 years. There is no way I'd want one of those growing in me.

[Big Blue Marble]

11. Many years ago, my cat barfed one up too!

It was so gross. It was alive, very nasty.

[Richardo]

18. Crap, I read that as 'very tasty'

:puke:

I hate to think what that says about me.

[Dorian Gray]

29. My cat did too

It was pulsating and gross. No way!

[havocmom]

9. Nothing new. There are ads for it in an old newspaper with my granddad's things

The newpaper is dated 1889

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. .

Curly: I'll have burned toast and a rotten egg.

Moe: Burned toast and a rotten egg?

Curly: Yeah, I got a tapeworm, and that's good enough for him.

[Johonny]

15. What would you name your tape worm?

Does it need to go for walks and is there a leash law?

[mike_c]

16. the ax diet is quicker, easier, and utterly foolproof....

It's cheap, too. A ten dollar hatchet will take off dozens of lbs in minutes.

[4lbs]

17. They couldn't just eat less calories?

.

[Richard D]

19. Old.

[Toucano]

20. The latest craze never is.

"The Tapeworm Diet emerged in the 1920s and was based on the false notion that ingesting a tapeworm was an appropriate weight-loss plan. According to Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend, jockeys in the 1930s and ’40s would intentionally give themselves tapeworms in hopes of staying trim. But the biggest poster child for the Tapeworm Diet was opera singer Maria Callas. An urban legend made popular by newspapers in the 1950s has it that Callas lost more than 60 pounds by popping a pill that contained a tapeworm egg. Once in her intestine, the tapeworm fed off her innards, helping to consume her food intake. In reality, if Callas had a tapeworm, it was likely an accidental result of her fondness for raw steak and raw liver. When interviewed, the singer revealed that the true reason behind her dramatic slim-down was a low-calorie diet of salads and chicken. Still not the most well-rounded meal plan, but it sure beats parasites!"

http://www.elle.com/Beauty/Health-Fitness/Craziest-Diets-of-All-Time

Why does every generation believe they invented everything?

[T Wolf]

21. Seems that I remember a Star Trek (Enterprise) episode in which Phlox used a worm to

"trim down" some extra weight.

I also remember Archer turning down Phlox's offer to lend him the worm.

[derby378]

22. I've got the perfect tapeworm video for y'all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W2fDGM1IRU

Odee-oten-doten-day! :headbang:

[Taverner]

23. I was going to go there, but I stopped myself...

And said - why do I want to see that?

[derby378]

24. At least it's not that segment from 1,000 WAYS TO DIE

That was somewhat tragic and morbid. Now, these Kids in the Hall fellers - they almost make tapeworms funny!

[sharp_stick]

26. Hi I'm from the Macaroni and Cheese Company

Loved that show. Classic sketch comedy gold everytime.

[Toasterlad]

25. Gross.

[Dorian Gray]

27. Gross....

people put them inside of their bodies on purpose??????

[pitohui]

28. it can't be the latest, it went around in the 1930s

or at least that's what my mom said in the 60s -- i think she heard it from her own mom

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

31. Will PetCo carry them? Will kids tell mom, 'It followed me home"?

Will anorexics feed them properly?