Victorian era weight loss pills contained live parasites that could grow twenty feet long

During the 1880s, Victorian women seeking the era's ideal physique turned to mail-order pills containing Taenia saginata eggs. Once ingested, these parasites could grow into twenty-foot-long adults that matured within the digestive tract. These flatworms sustained themselves by absorbing up to 90 percent of their host's pre-digested nutrients directly through their skin, bypassing the need for a mouth entirely.