I have heard reports of tapeworms being used for dietary purposes, but never knew whether such was factual or not.
Snopes gives the topic an "undetermined" status; they point out that advertisements for a product (especially in that era) don't equate to the worms actually being in the product. And Maria Callas, who lost weight during a tapeworm infestation, was fond of liver tartare and other raw meats and could well have acquired the parasite naturally.
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It looks like a parody to me. What decade does that look like? The fonts are all over the place (some look like from the 1950s), especially the crudely drawn "FAT" and "BANISHED". Also, I'm pretty sure that 100 years ago, the link between obesity lower lifespan was not established yet. The source of the image is also a bit questioned, coming from a web site called "Fuck Yeah Victorians".
ReplyDeleteMy guess it is a MAD-esque parody from the 1960s.
I read the article and now I'm off food for a while. So in a roundabout way, it does work. I'm still not giving up carpaccio.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the work of Koichiro Fujita:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/292/5514/47a
An episode of Radiolab last fall discussed tapeworms and other parasites. Apparently having tapeworms may reduce or eliminate the symptoms of many allergies. I tell you, the crazy stuff you learn ...
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