Comments on: The Tapeworm Diet

By: Inspired: Abundance » Tapeworm Diet

Inspired: Abundance » Tapeworm Diet — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:08:28 +0000

[...] The other day, I heard a very gross rumor by way of a girlfriendâ€™s friend who supposedly heard about this being talked about by rich women at a New York party: the tapeworm diet. I donâ€™t doubt my sources, nor do I doubt the extremes to which pumped up New York socialites will go to, but various websites are telling me that this fad is actually an urban legend. The idea is basically that you would take a pill to infect yourself with a tapeworm, and then you can eat whatever you want without gaining any weight, cause the tapeworm digests it for you. [...]

By: jlhart7

jlhart7 — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 17:29:15 +0000

This reminds me of an episode of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” South Bronx Paradise, baby!

By: whatacharacter

whatacharacter — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 14:38:58 +0000

*ahem* … there is also the nasty side effect of “bed-time itchy sphincter,” as tape worms emerge at night and lay eggs outside the nearest opening … don’t ask me how I know, just there are certain ponds one shouldn’t swim in in high summer.

On a postive note: Leeches are still used medically with great effect in surgery, and for burn victims!

By: Lynn S

Lynn S — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 20:36:07 +0000

I can’t say whether it’s legit or not but check out this website:

http://www.tapewormdiet.net/

By: Lynn S

Lynn S — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 19:12:24 +0000

I can’t remember where it was but I did see an old ad for tapeworm diet pills.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:13:57 +0000

Uh, Rev Max… did you not notice that I posted that same info in the body of my original post?

By: Rev Max

Rev Max — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:09:30 +0000

Oh man, this is an old, old, story - supposedly tapeworm eggs were sold as diet pills in the mid 1800s but who knows?

OK, snopes says:

As unlikely as this must sound, there might be some reason to believe tapeworm diet pills were once marketed in the United States between 1900 and 1920. A number of sources have indicated encountering advertisements for such products, but whether the products advertised actually matched their descriptions would be difficult to verify. (Just because an ad for a diet pill proclaimed the product contained tapeworms doesn’t mean it really did â€” duping people into buying medicinal nostrums by way of making false and exaggerated claims was standard procedure in the days before government regulation of food and drug products.)

By: Mr. Blind

Mr. Blind — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 16:14:57 +0000

I think on TV I heard that tape worms can lay a shit ton of eggs inside of you in a couple of days as well.