WEBVTT - ‘EAT! EAT! EAT!’ Fat ‘Banished’ With Tapeworm Diet 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.559 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:11.879 with iHeartRadio. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:17.560 Urban legend originating from the mid nineteen fifties would have 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:22.040 you think. Opera singer Maria Kallis lost sixty five pounds 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.759 on the tapeworm diet, a diet where she allegedly swallowed 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:30.440 a parasite packed pill to consume calories for her Now 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:34.680 that's been debunked. It's confirmed by her biography and personal 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.280 communications that though she was diagnosed with a beef tapeworm, 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.080 it was due to eating raw meat and wasn't something 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.840 she did on purpose. But it probably goes without saying, though, 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.760 that humans have done some very strange things in the 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.559 name of beauty and fashion over the centuries. The tapeworm 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:56.279 diet was and unfortunately still is a real thing, and 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.120 it was once a super popular attempt at weight loss. 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:05.160 So let's talk tapeworms. Perhaps one of our grossest episodes yet, 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.440 Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarky. 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:13.400 And I'm Holly Frye. So getting yourself a parasitic buddy 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.000 will help you lose weight, But please, for the love 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:20.319 of all that's holy, don't do it. The idea here 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.880 is that the tapeworm lives in your intestines and basically 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.120 eats whatever you're eating, meaning you can go for seconds 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.880 and thirds without feeling guilty about any of the calories 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.440 is you're not absorbing them. That doesn't sound so bad 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.720 right until you get to the tapeworm part. That is, 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.800 tapeworm should not be inside your body period. They can 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:44.280 get in there by accident, though, and that can happen if, 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:49.040 for instance, you consume raw or undercooked meat that includes beef, pork, 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:53.160 or fish, or if you drink contaminated water. You could 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:57.160 also become infected after handling food, water, or objects that 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:02.400 have been contaminated with feces. Close physical contact with your dog, 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.320 such as allowing them to lick your face, is also 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:09.720 a risk for developing a tapeworm infection. However, if you 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.440 lived in London between roughly eighteen thirty and nineteen hundred, 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.840 there's a good chance you might have intentionally swallowed a 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.200 tapeworm for weight loss. 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:24.720 The fad would also hit the United States, but not 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.840 until a bit later in the early nineteen hundreds. We 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.480 should note, though, that while we'll be talking about the 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.240 Victorian tapeworm diet. Tyra Banks talked about the diet on 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.560 her show back in two thousand and nine. Courtney Kardashian 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.520 joked about wanting a tapeworm as recently as twenty fifteen, 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:45.320 and in twenty thirteen, a woman from Iowa consumed tapeworm 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.160 pills for weight loss, which resulted in an official warning 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.280 from the Iowa State Department of Public Health. This is 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.000 one of those things that just hasn't gone. 0:02:54.800 --> 0:03:00.560 Away, and that's maybe because the tapeworm diet sounds pretty easy. 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:03.240 All you needed was a little pill that was in 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:09.560 victorian times advertised with claims like easily swallowed, sanitized and 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:13.880 jar packed. One popular ad read Eat Eat, Eat, and 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.919 all was stay thin, no diet, no baths, no exercise, 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:23.440 no danger, guaranteed harmless fat. The enemy that is shortening 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:29.840 your life banished. How with sanitized tapeworms jar packed friends 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:33.919 for a fair form, easy to swallow, no ill effects, 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:38.640 prepared by wt Bridge chemist, New York, send no money, 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:44.800 particulars mailed free. To be clear, nothing about tapeworms is sanitary, 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.440 but product labels surely did proudly claim that their pills 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:49.000 were safe. 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.840 How did this even become a thing? You might be 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:57.840 wondering these standards are problematic now, but in the eighteenth 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:02.800 and early nineteenth centuries, ideas about feminine beauty included pale skin, 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:07.640 rosy cheeks, red lips, white teeth, and sparkling eyes. Women 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:12.160 were also expected to be wafishly thin. A sixteen inch waist, 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:18.159 yes sixteen was ideal by some standards, and women also 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.599 needed to be graceful and polite, according to a series 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.000 of essays on the subject at the time, quote politeness 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.320 may be defined as a dexterous management of our words 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.919 and actions, whereby we make other people have better opinion 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:33.600 of us and themselves. 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.559 One of the most popular beauty guides of the era, 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.280 an unfortunate book called The Ugly Girl Papers, written by 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.960 SD Powers and published in eighteen seventy four, was a 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.360 sort of self help guide for the quote unquote ugly 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:52.280 women in society, with tips on how to become more beautiful, 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.840 and even stated that quote it is a woman's business 0:04:55.960 --> 0:05:00.000 to be beautiful. Beauty takes time and effort, the book 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.320 bok explained, and if you wanted to find a husband, 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.359 you needed to put in the time. This body shaming 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:09.400 guide had the gall to recommend women find a quote 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:13.560 healthy balance in the pursuit of beauty, all while explaining 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.400 how to maintain one's figure or how to drop a 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:20.480 few pounds to be more attractive to others. The author claimed, 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.800 quote if stout, a girl should eat as little as 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:28.520 will satisfy her appetite, never allowing herself, however, to rise 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.040 from the table hungry enter the tapeworm. 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:35.600 But before we meet this parasite, we're going to take 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:38.640 a break forward from our sponsors. When we're back, we 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.159 will talk about the unreasonable standard of beauty women were 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.760 held to in the Victorian era and how women were 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.040 perceived if they did not fit that mold. 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:04.880 We come back to criminalia. Let's start talking about tuberculosis 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.520 and how it ties in to the tapeworm diet. 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.880 So during this time, ideal feminine beauty was based on 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:16.040 the appearance of people who had tuberculosis, which was romanticized 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.440 during the era. For those characteristics we mentioned earlier, a 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:24.760 pale complexion, dilated pupils, and a frail thin physique. Tuberculosis 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:28.200 had reached epidemic levels in Europe and in the United 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.160 States by the mid nineteenth century. The disease targets the 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:36.920 lungs and also damages other organs, and before antibiotics were available, 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:40.320 if you had it, it meant a slow death march. 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.800 You died from what was then called consumption. During that time, 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.280 consumption was believed to be caused by a hereditary susceptibility 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.640 to it, as well as from unhealthy or so called 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:56.400 bad air known as miasmas. It wasn't known to be infectious. 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:01.719 Published in nineteen oh nine, the book Tuberculosis, a treatise 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:09.520 by American authors on its etiology, pathology, frequency, semiology, diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:14.160 and treatment, outlines the illness this way quote, A considerable 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:18.280 number of patients have and have had for years, a delicate, 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:24.000 transparent skin, as well as fine silky hair. Those sparkling 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.280 or dilated eyes and rosy cheeks and lips that were 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:31.440 longed for were common in tuberculosis patients because their common 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:35.520 characteristics of an ongoing low grade fever, but that wasn't 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:37.720 known to the medical community at the time. 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:42.800 Desperate to achieve the coveted look, some Victorian women snacked 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.640 on wafers made of arsenic to give themselves that bright 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.800 eyed look as well as help them achieve a translucent complexion. 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.559 Eyedrops of belladonna were used to dilate pupils, which also 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:58.240 made eyes look bigger. Belladonna, also known as deadly nightshade, 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:02.520 can also cause blood kindness. Please don't try any of 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.200 this at home, and as we keep going, none of 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:06.240 it gets any healthier. 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:11.280 This unrealistic image society set for women to live up to, 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:15.720 also used a woman's weight as a barometer of her intelligence, 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:21.240 her character, her sexuality, and even her sanity. In Victorian society, 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:26.120 excess weight was attributed to a woman's quote indolence of mind. 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.560 Go ahead and embrace yourself, because the body shaming only 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.840 gets worse from here. A nineteen hundred edition of The 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:37.680 Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette reported quote obesity always carries with 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.959 it physical and often mental weakness. In his eighteen ninety 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:46.520 seven book The Female Offender, author Cizar Lambroso, who was, 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:51.239 among other things, a eugenicist, claimed a connection between obesity 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.760 and sex work, stating quote, this greater weight among prostitutes 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.000 is confirmed by the notorious fact of the obesity of 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.520 those who grow old in their vile trade and who 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:08.520 gradually become positive monsters of adipose tissue. Taking another leap, 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.319 he goes on to conclude that quote female lunatics are 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.760 far more often exaggeratedly fat than men. 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:21.120 A so called consumptive chic to cover the fashion world 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:23.720 of the mid eighteen hundreds, as women sought to avoid 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.880 being associated with all of that negative perception of carrying 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:32.440 any weight at all. To look as thin as possible 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:36.400 and achieve that ideal sixteen inch waist, women wore pointed 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.080 corsets and generous skirts to call attention to tiny waists, 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.920 and under those voluminous skirts, women appeared to glide as 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.880 they moved, adding an otherworldly dimension to their delicate comportment. 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.679 Women also attempted to mimic the consumptive ethereal appearance by 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.800 using white powder on their skin and by washing their 0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:00.120 skin with arsenic yes. Again, the poison. 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:05.840 Tuberculosis chic was hot. Take for instance, Marie Duplessi, a 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:10.440 French Cortisan and Parisian celebrity. Today we would think of 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.920 someone like her as an influencer. She was a striking 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.800 Victorian beauty whose well known portrait by artist Edouar Vienna 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.520 shows off her shiny black hair. Framing her oval face. 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.320 Her eyes are sparkling, and she has pale ivory skin. 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.920 Duplessi got that sought after look because she was afflicted 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.120 with tuberculosis and she died from it at the age 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:37.560 of twenty three. To achieve that kind of beauty, women 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.560 bathed in ammonia and they wore body crushing corsets. And 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:45.400 some women chose more drastic measures, and that is ingesting 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:52.000 tapeworms by swallowing tapeworm pills. Those pills contained beef tapeworm larvae. 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.760 These larvae cysts would then hatch inside the body and 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.160 voila weight loss was now in progress. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:04.440 According to food historian Anny Gray Quote, during the nineteenth century, 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:09.800 dieting became big business. Advertising was becoming more and more sophisticated, 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.400 with more and more diet products being pedled. So let's 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:18.120 talk how these tapeworms fit in to consumptive chek. 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:23.280 So, tapeworms, as we've been saying, are parasites. They're members 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:26.920 of the phylum Anelda, also known as segmented worms, and 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:31.760 that's a species that also includes pinworms and leeches. Segmented 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.400 worms can break off segments of their body and as 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.400 long as the head remains attached to its host, the 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:42.160 creature can regrow more segments. Tapeworms have three main parts. 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:45.520 The head, which is the part that attaches to intestines 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.280 and ingests nutrients from your body, the neck, which can 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.400 regenerate its body. And then there's the rest of the worm, 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:57.040 which consists of many segments that bear eggs. When those 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.839 eggs hatch, they detach from the rest of the tapeworm 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.800 and travel through the bloodstream to your muscles and to 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:07.720 your brain, liver, and other organs, where they develop into cysts. 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:10.760 If treatment to get rid of a tapeworm does not 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:14.160 eliminate the head and neck, it may as well be 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.760 useless because the entire worm can regrow. 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.880 Tapeworms generally don't cause more than minor symptoms, including things 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.720 like lack of appetite, diarrhea, nausea, weight loss of course, 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.840 and a craving for salty foods. But if those cysts 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:33.560 grow in the spine or brain rather than the intestine, 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:38.199 side effects could cause life threatening problems, including seizures, nerve pain, 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:42.480 muscle weakness, and cognitive changes. If the central nervous system 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:47.720 becomes infected, a person might experience hydrocephalous meningitis, and damage 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.480 to blood vessels in the brainstem or nerves. In some cases, 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.440 if the tapeworm grows long enough, it could lead to 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.520 obstruction of the bowel appendix or bialduct, which is a 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:02.240 medical emergency. And on ava ridge, an adult tapeworm is 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:04.960 about fifteen to thirty feet long. I mean, can you 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:11.040 imagine in you're intestine on purpose, and they weren't temporary guests. 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.280 You could host one for up to a decade. As 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.199 long as your symptoms were mild, you might not even notice. 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.199 So with all of that delicious imagery and mind, we're 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.599 going to take a break for a word from our sponsors, 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.360 and when we're back, we will talk about how one 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:30.240 might remove a tapeworm before anti parasitic drugs. It was 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:43.520 not especially easy. 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:48.079 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's get to talking about ways 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:52.640 tapeworms were removed before modern medicine. But first let's talk 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:55.080 about how maybe not a lot of those pills worked 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:59.880 as advertised anyway. 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.479 When it comes down to both Victorian and modern dieters, 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:06.760 because that tapeworm diet just won't go away. Stories about 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:11.719 the effectiveness of this horrifying diet are actually kind of murky. 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:16.360 Modern historians disagree on whether people actually ingested any real 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:20.440 tapeworms from those pills, or whether the advertised products were 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:25.720 just simply placebos. Luckily, most of those tapeworm pills probably 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.720 didn't work because most of them were probably inactive, or 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.240 they just didn't even contain the active ingredient, which is 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:37.120 a funny thing to call a tapeworm at all. One example, 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.600 a product called Neutroids, marketed in the nineteen hundreds is 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:43.760 a weight loss supplement sold by doctor R. Lincoln Graham 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.280 of the Gram Sanatorium in New York City, contained ie 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:51.880 at all, magnesium carbonate, starch, talc, and a trace of iron. 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.800 But you'll notice that ingredients list contains absolutely no mention 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:58.000 of tapeworms. 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.720 But for those who were actually infected, there's still one 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:07.520 thing we haven't talked about. Removing your tapeworm buckle up 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.640 because some of these will probably make you squirm. The 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:15.600 worm could theoretically leave your body on its own during 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.640 a bowel movement. Segments of a tapeworm can break off 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:20.720 and exit the body in your stool, and you would 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.480 be able to see them. Pieces of tapeworm in your 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:27.520 stool usually look flat and rectangular. They would be white 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.200 or a pale yellow, and they'd be the size of 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.320 a grain of rice, although sometimes they remain joined together 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:35.560 in a long chain of segments. 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.280 Today, if you find yourself in the unfortunate scenario where 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:43.240 you have a tapeworm, your doctor would prescribe what are 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:48.120 known as anthelmentic drugs, which treat parasitic infections. But before 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:51.680 the mid twentieth century, when the first modern anti parasitic 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:55.600 drugs hit the market, worms were treated in a few ways. 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.760 Purgative plants such as wormwood were used to both kill 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.960 the wor you were hosting and trigger your body to 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:08.400 expel it with about of rather severe diarrhea. 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:13.360 Another popular method of removing your tapeworm involved holding a 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.280 glass of milk at your mouth or near your anus, 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.640 and then waiting for the worm to come out. Theoretically, 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.480 it would head for that milk. Now, there is no 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.480 proof that milk can coax or remove a parasite, but 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:28.280 when it comes to folk remedies, it can be hard 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:33.000 to shake. And then there's this method. Terry Deary, in 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:38.120 his book Horrible Histories Vile Victorians, describes a method invented 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:42.120 by a doctor Myers of Sheffield, England, in which cylinders 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:46.520 stuffed with food were inserted into a person's digestive tract. 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:50.120 Patients were then instructed not to eat for a few days, 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.960 so that the tapeworms looking for a meal would theoretically 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.960 be lured into those traps. Tapeworms would then be coaxed 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.840 out of the body with the aforementioned milk method, and 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.639 while a glass of milk wasn't really going to help, 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.120 at least it was a fairly benign treatment in comparison, 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.080 some people choked to death on these cylinders. 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.240 During the second half of the nineteenth century, there was 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:19.160 a better understanding of tuberculosis when in eighteen eighty two, 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:23.120 Robert Coch announced that he discovered the bacteria that causes 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:27.360 the disease. In eighteen sixty one, Louis Pasteur had introduced 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:32.600 germ theory, a breakthrough that proved microscopic organisms invisible germs 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.359 were a cause of infection rather than something like bad air. 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:41.280 Building on that, Koch's understanding of tuberculosis helped germ theory 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:45.120 gain more legitimacy, and it also convinced both public health 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:50.040 experts and physicians that tuberculosis was a contagious disease. 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.840 For those desperate to lose weight, whatever their motivation to 0:17:54.880 --> 0:18:00.439 do so, tapeworms maybe sounded more appealing or potentially quicker 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.639 than things like changing your diet and exercise habits. The 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:08.720 United States Food and Drug Administration officially banned tapeworm pills, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.840 but there's no ban on the unrealistic expectations of female 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:23.120 beauty then or now, I think we need to drink 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:25.320 to make this just wash away from. 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:27.520 I think so tia. But this comes with a bit 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:31.480 of a secondary history lesson. Are you ready, let's do it. 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:37.200 We mentioned one of the treatments was to consume wormwood. Yes, 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:39.880 and I can't let a mention of wormwood go by 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:44.800 and not talk about absence. Of course. So wormwood's scientific 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.680 name is Artemisia absyntheum. That's where absinthe gets its name. 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:52.000 It's an ornamental plant. It's native to Europe, although now 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:54.280 you can find it in other places. It has been 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:57.240 used medicinally since all the way back to ancient Egypt. 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:00.119 It was in the ebers Pyrus. It's also mentioned in 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:04.120 the Bible. Pliny the Elder talked about it Juliette's wet 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:08.280 nurse in Shakespeare's play speaks of weaning Juliet by putting 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:13.240 wormwood on her person because the bitter taste made nursing unappealing. 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:18.520 But it didn't become an alcohol until the seventeen hundreds, 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:22.320 when Pierre Ordinaire, who was a French doctor, is credited 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:24.760 with coming up with the first absinthe recipe in his 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.200 book The Complete Body of Distilling. That was in seventeen 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.200 thirty one, and it was still more than sixty years 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.199 before absinthe was bottled as a commercial product, which was 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:38.320 done by Henri Luis Perennaut, and once it was commercially available, 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.040 it was a huge hit, so much so that cocktail 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:45.280 hour in Paris got renamed le'overt which is the green hour. 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:50.200 And then absence spread from beyond France to the rest 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.960 of Europe and then eventually to the US, and people 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:56.760 really loved it, then they didn't, or some people loved 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:58.840 it and some people did not. A lot of people 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:01.960 got a legen addicted to it, and by the late 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:05.680 nineteenth century it was really easy to find editorials talking 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:08.320 about the dangers of absinthe and how it was fundamentally 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.040 evil and how it was going to ruin everybody. That 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:15.959 wave of anti absent thinking was helped by doctors who 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.399 had started to attribute a lot of issues to absinthe, 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.560 including various mental illnesses which were all grouped under the 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.960 nebulous umbrella of insanity, which made me think also of 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:31.760 how some doctors who were horrible made strange and unscientific 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:36.600 associations between carrying extra weight and being insane or whatnot. 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:39.720 And eventually they believed that they had isolated the specific 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.639 problem ingredient, which was wormwood in absinthe, which of course 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:49.399 contains a compound called thujone. Thujone is toxic, to be clear, 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:51.760 but the assessment of absent that the dawn of the 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.840 twentieth century wasn't accurate in terms of that theu jone 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.600 being dangerous, because there were actually studies that started to 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.040 come out talking about thu jon dangers and what it 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.040 could do to you. That's kind of why it was medicinal. 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:07.479 It had enough toxicity that you could use it to 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:09.080 do things like kill a tape. 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:10.280 Or kill a tape worm exactly. 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:16.640 And as the medical community and scientists started publishing papers, 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:21.160 absence started getting banned. Belgium was the first to ban 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.400 it in nineteen oh five, and then just ten years later, 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:28.399 by nineteen fifteen, almost I think every European country except 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.600 Spain had banned it. The US had also banned it, 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.159 and it stayed banned for a long time. 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.119 It's interesting because that overlaps our time frame here with 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:40.320 killing tape worms with wormwood. 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:45.240 Yeah, exactly. It really wasn't like until eighty years after 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:49.480 it that people started looking at absinthe again and being like, wait, 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:53.200 what wasn't it that was so bad and really kind 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:55.359 of start to do analysis on whether it had actually 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:59.600 been toxic, And when those analyzes were performed, it really 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:04.439 became clear that the theu jone in absinthe really was 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:07.240 just adding a little bit of bitter flavor and sometimes 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:10.359 part of that green coloration we associate with it, but 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:12.880 there was nowhere near enough in it to be toxic. 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:16.399 So that idea that the wormwood in absinthe was what 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:21.480 made it dangerous was completely unfounded. All of those problems 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:25.560 that had been attributed to thujone and to absyinthe, it 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:27.800 was really just run of the mill alcoholism in a 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.680 lot of cases, and it was like the novel alcohol, 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:33.359 so that's why people were choosing it, and in some 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:38.080 cases I suspect there were also instances where people actually 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:41.440 did have some form of mental illness that they were 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:44.960 self medicating through heavy drinking because there was no one 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:47.560 recognizing what the real problem was to treat. 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:50.440 Them, and no real treatment at the time. 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:53.600 Yeah, there was nothing to do, so like absinthe and 0:22:53.720 --> 0:22:57.360 wormwood kind of got this bad rap for no actual 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:02.159 factual reason. By the way, that whole absinth causing hallucinations 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:05.280 thing is debunked left and right. It's kind of one 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:08.120 of those two sided coins. Both the people that were 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:10.359 into absinthe and the people that thought it was evil 0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:14.320 were kind of both perpetuating that myth because people that 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:16.280 were really into it were like, it was amazing, it 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:19.160 was mind altering, it was the best thing I've ever had, 0:23:19.400 --> 0:23:21.560 And people that thought it was evil were like, it 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:23.879 will mess up your mind. It's gonna make you like 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:26.880 they were saying the same thing but with different emphasis. 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:30.879 So as all of this scientific information started to become 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:35.520 a parent, slowly those bands started to roll back. There 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:41.040 are specific limits just in case on how much wormwood 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:43.679 can be included in production of absinth, but you can 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:48.640 buy it pretty readily almost anywhere. Now this has been 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:52.200 your absent advocacy minute, and now we're going to drink 0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:53.200 some all right. 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:55.240 I like a little history lesson with my drink. 0:23:55.840 --> 0:24:00.240 This is a drink that I'm calling beauty standards, and 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:02.280 it is a really easy one because you make it 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:06.399 in the glass. It shares some DNA with a mule. 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:10.520 There are times when you do not want to directly 0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:15.440 pour your alcohol and your mixing ingredients over ice, because 0:24:15.440 --> 0:24:18.439 the ice starts to melt very quickly and dilute. In 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:21.440 the case of absinthe, I think it's fine you would 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:23.520 normally if you order an absinth in a bar, they're 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:25.760 gonna dilute it with water anyway. That's what that whole 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:28.600 sugar cube drop thing is going on when you get one. 0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:30.639 So you're gonna put your ice, a good amount of 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:33.280 ice in your glass or your cup, whatever you're using. 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:36.840 You're gonna pour in an ounce of absinthe, a half 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:40.560 ounce of lemon juice, a half ounce of violet syrup, 0:24:41.160 --> 0:24:42.960 and then you're gonna top that with two to four 0:24:43.040 --> 0:24:45.520 ounces of ginger beer and just give it a stir. 0:24:46.480 --> 0:24:50.040 The violet syrup and the absinthe. It's like drinking the 0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:53.080 most beautiful bouquet in the world. Like all of the 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:58.800 herbaceous flavors of absinthe really come out, and the violet 0:24:59.280 --> 0:25:03.160 it softens the edges of everything. It's so yummy and delicious. 0:25:03.640 --> 0:25:04.760 I would like one right now. 0:25:05.040 --> 0:25:06.920 That's in a great list of ingredients that sounds like 0:25:06.920 --> 0:25:07.560 a yummy drink. 0:25:08.040 --> 0:25:11.160 Violet syrup is one of those things. If you don't 0:25:11.200 --> 0:25:14.560 have it, I recommend getting some. You can make it. 0:25:14.560 --> 0:25:16.880 It's a little bit tricky, so I recommend buying that one, 0:25:17.200 --> 0:25:19.400 or at least I find it tricky. Somebody else would 0:25:19.400 --> 0:25:22.720 be like what, it's easy, and every time I recommend 0:25:22.800 --> 0:25:25.040 ordering some because it's just one of those syrups that's 0:25:25.080 --> 0:25:28.240 like it adds to your bar cart or your backbar, 0:25:28.320 --> 0:25:31.200 whatever you're using, like just this little like secret weapon 0:25:31.200 --> 0:25:34.119 that you can use to make drinks feel a little elevated. 0:25:34.200 --> 0:25:36.520 And if when you use it in lieu of simple syrup, 0:25:37.160 --> 0:25:39.320