How to eat parasites: a guide for the perplexed

Let's continue our cursed journey of learning all about parasites! Today we will learn how to eat parasites: what to eat, how to eat them, and what to avoid.

The main source I rely on is

Overstreet, Robin M., ‘Presidential Address: Flavor Buds and Other Delights’, Journal of Parasitology, 89.6 (2003), 1093–1107 <https://doi.org/10/dv2tdk>

Tapeworm diet

Kind of a meme really. The tapeworm diet idea is simple: if there's a tapeworm in your intestine, they would eat your food and get fat for you, so that you won't get fat.

Typical advertisement from early 20th century

While tapeworms usually do not make one sick, they can block the intestine if they get too big or too many, which is life-threatening. That, and they don't work that well for losing weight.

Also this delicious factoid:

The cysticerci of the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium, have been fed by unprincipled medical advisors to unwitting Hollywood actresses in the 1930s as "slimming pills," producing adults in the intestine (Russell-Hunter, 1979).