Swallowing tapeworm cysts was an actual weight loss trend in the Victorian era and early 20th century, proving that humans have always been willing to do absolutely unhinged things just to fit into smaller pants.

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Swallowing tapeworm cysts was an actual weight loss trend in the Victorian era and early 20th century, proving that humans have always been willing to do absolutely unhinged things just to fit into smaller pants. People would willingly ingest pills containing the eggs of beef tapeworms, hoping the parasite would hatch in their intestines and consume a portion of the food they ate. Once the desired weight was reached, the dieter would take a toxic anti-parasitic pill to kill the worm, which then had to be passed through the digestive tract. Sometimes these worms grew up to thirty feet long and caused severe malnutrition, seizures, or even death. So the next time you feel like complaining about how restrictive your keto diet is, just remember that your ancestors literally hosted a giant, nutrient-stealing flatworm in their gut just to look snatched in a corset!