The AFU and Urban Legend Archive Celebrities maria callas had tapeworm Select a topic - - - - - - - - Home Searches AFU FAQ - - - - - - - - AFU Animals Books Celebrities Classic Collegiate Death Disney Drugs Food GIF Language Legal Medical Misc Movies Politics Products Religion Science Sex Songs TV - - - - - - - - Other sites

From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: celebrity tapeworm update.
Date: 24 May 1994 22:43:15 GMT
Message-ID: <2rtvu3$gp4@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>

Some time ago, the question arose as to whether Maria Callas had a tapeworm in order to lose weight. Joel Achenbach said so in his newspaper column, somebody else came up with something. Here is something a little more credible.

Maria , Callas Remembered
Nadia Stancioff
1987, E.P. Dutton
ISBN 0-525-24565-0

p. 92: [while in Mexico City] She asked Simionata to accompany her to a plastic surgeon to see if an operation could improve her heavy legs. The answer was negative. So she subjected herself to endless torture: Electric massage, hot-wax treatments and frequent Turkish baths.

p. 106: [...] The attention the press now gave to Maria's weight problem humiliated and enraged her. [...]

I knew she experimented with a number of crash diets and diuretics, but she told me she always went back to her basic meat diet, which she followed most of her life: rare beef or (raw) steak tartare, sometimes accompanied by a salad or vegetable. I get quite nauseated at the thought of all the raw meat I watched Maria eat during our meals together in Rome and Paris.

Then, at the end of 1953, the incredible Callas metamorphosis began. She gradually lost 65 pounds over the next couple of years. She went from 210 to 144 pounds. The press, of course, reveled in her transformation, exploiting the before-and-after pictures. [blah blah]

According to Maria, there was no secret diet or potion; the answer was a taenia, or tapeworm, which is sometimes acquired from raw or rare meat. Maria told me she had one twice, which made me wince in disgust. .......................................

T* Maria Callas lost 65 lbs. due to tapeworm infection.

ObTravelTip: When in the Washington area, be sure to check out the United States National Parasite Collection. This is located at the Department of Agriculture in Beltsville Maryland.

Jon " salt also kills parasites. " Papai --
`Personal anecdotes are "salt" to the "meat" of real AFU postings. Some salt on meat improves the taste, but nobody wants to eat pure salt.` -Brian Scearce
...................................................................

From: keithk@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: celebrity tapeworm update.
Message-ID: <1994May24.215337.10178@guvax> Date: 24 May 94 21:53:37 -0500

[snip...see above]

I'd suggest:

        T: Maria Callas lost 65 lbs.
        Tb[*by* Maria Callas]: Her weight loss was due to a tapeworm.

Tapeworms are big (up to 30 ft, but very flat and skinny) and disgusting-looking. However, they aren't that dangerous to humans. In some cases tapeworm eggs can enter the muscle and cause muscle weakness and tiredness, but mostly a tapeworm just sits and eats. They compete with the human for food resources, which they absorb through their body walls from digested food in the stomach. But a tapeworm just can't absorb enough food to starve its human host. It doesn't take that much food to feed a flatworm four cells thick and a few millimeters wide, no matter how long it is. It certainly won't absorb enough nutrients to cause a 200-lb heavy eater to drop almost a third of her body weight. Even several worms - a whole ball of worms - won't do that. Maybe Callas just *thought* she had a worm and it put her off her feed - ie: perhaps she said her weight loss was due to a tapeworm but she wasn't being voracious!

The _Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy_ lists, in "Table 13.1: Commonly Encountered Intestinal Parasitic Infections", under "Most Common Symptoms" for both species of _Taenia_ tapeworms (beef and pork): "Usually asymptomatic". In the text for the pork tapeworm, the section on "Symptoms, Signs, and Diagnosis" reads: "Infection is usually asymptomatic, though mild GI symptoms may be noted.". The section on the beef tapeworm describes the condition as "A usually asymptomatic infection ...", and "Symptoms, Signs, and Diagnosis" gives: "The infection is usually asymptomatic, though epigastric pain, diarrhea, and weight loss may occur." [Fourteenth Edition, 1982; volume I of two-volume edition; Table 13.1 p 144; text pp 162-3]

So: the tapeworm Callas believed she had *may* cause weight loss, but does not usually do so, nor do most red-meat tapeworms. And even if Callas was one of the rare cases who lose weight from tapeworm infection, 65 lbs is hard to believe. (Assuming she kept eating the same amount of food the whole time and her metabolism hadn't changed, that amount of food energy had to have gone somewhere. In other words, she must have had a 65-lb tapeworm! Plausible?)

Kevin "will match flatworms with anyone on AFU" T. Keith .........................................................................

From: ikuo@panix.com (Kim Scheinberg)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: celebrity tapeworm update.
Date: 24 May 1994 22:17:21 -0400
Message-ID: <2rucfh$qon@panix.com>

keithk@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes
>PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai) writes:

[see above]

Sorry, Kevin, 65 lbs. is not hard to believe.

Been there. Done that. Bought the t-shirt but it doesn't fit anymore. Back in '83, I had a tapeworm for about a month or so. Lost close to ten pounds. And no, I didn't change my exercise or eating patterns. If anything, I was eating considerably more because I was feeling so tired all the time.

I don't know how Maria lost her weight. I know how I lost mine...

kim "ask me about the cure sometime" scheinberg ..........................................................................

From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: celebrity tapeworm update.
Date: 25 May 1994 07:23:50 GMT

[see above stuff]

Which is somewhat interesting I suppose, but not particularly relevant to the Maria Callas story. You lost 10 lbs and you believe that a weight loss more than 6 times that due to a tapeworm is easy to believe?

Medical refs don't seem to mention significant weight loss (I would consider 65 lbs significant) as a likely result of tapeworm infection. The instructive line in Jon's posting is that Callas herself believed it was due to the tapeworm, but I wouldn't give it a "Tb."

Terry "Was it Scottish?" Chan
[.sig deleted]
.......................................................................

From: ikuo@panix.com (Kim Scheinberg)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: celebrity tapeworm update.
Date: 25 May 1994 08:53:56 -0400
Message-ID: <2rvhp4$6lr@panix.com>

[snip]

TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan) writes:

>Which is somewhat interesting I suppose, but not particularly
>relevant to the Maria Callas story. You lost 10 lbs and you
>believe that a weight loss more than 6 times that due to a
>tapeworm is easy to believe?
>
>Medical refs don't seem to mention significant weight loss (I
>would consider 65 lbs significant) as a likely result of
>tapeworm infection. The instructive line in Jon's posting is
>that Callas herself believed it was due to the tapeworm, but
>I wouldn't give it a "Tb."

When I lost ten pounds, that made a very noticable difference. Two clothing sizes, in fact. The doctor left me with the impression that this should be dealt with at earliest convenience because losing more weight would be a Bad Thing (tm)

I (perhaps wrongly) inferred that, if I lost 8% of my body weight in a month, losing almost 25% of one's body weight (while still being rather zaftig at 160) over a period of years would surely seem plausible.

My Merck manual discusses several types of worms, including Whipworm, whose most common symptoms are diarrhea, abdominal pain, anemia, and weight loss. Admittedly, whipworm is a form of roundworm, rather than tapeworm, but I don't think I ever got the specs on what kind of worm I had and it's possible that Maria used 'tapeworm' as a generic term, as well.

kim "food for thought" scheinberg
......................................................................

From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: celebrity tapeworm update.
Date: 25 May 1994 13:42:22 GMT
Message-ID: <2rvkju$j98@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>

[snip, see above]

It is interesting that you would dismiss 65 lb weight loss over two years as inconsistent with 10 lbs in one month.

65 lbs                  10 lbs
--------        <<      ------
24 months               1 month

KeithK quoted The Merck Manual:
> The infection is usually asymptomatic, though epigastric pain,
> diarrhea, and weight loss may occur." [Fourteenth Edition, 1982;
> volume I of two-volume edition; Table 13.1 p 144; text pp 162-3]

Note the important words `usually` and `may occur.` Given that the woman ate raw meat regularly, one would expect that she would be bound to encounter more voracious examples of the worms than people who usually cook their food.

I'd still give it at least a Tb.

Jon " What of Mario Lanza? " Papai