Features Lounge

How far would you go to look beautiful?

 

I’d be the first one to admit that I struggle with body confidence issues, but then I’m a woman and all women, no matter how beautiful they might be, will look in the mirror at some point in their lives and think “pfft…I hate my…(fill in appropriate body part). I try to make things look better with makeup and hair products, the usual stuff that you might find in any woman’s bathroom cabinet and I go to the gym to keep myself looking in half decent shape (most of the time!).

In time I suppose my 'anti' attitudes towards surgery might change – maybe I will dabble around with botox and face lifts – but I doubt it. One things for sure, I wont be ingesting a tape worm in my quest for beauty any time soon.

Yep, you heard me right. It was reported this week in a national newspaper that women (brides to be in particular) are going all out cuckoo in their quest for the perfect bod. Some are following in the footsteps of Beyonce and dabbling in the Maple Syrup diet, some are throwing themselves into hardcore Boot Camp style workouts and some are swallowing parasites to consume their extra calories. Whaaat?!!

According to sources, women are swallowing Beef tapeworms which can help them lose up to two pounds per week. Once the target weight is reached they simply take antibiotics to kill the worm and hey presto the black dress fits!

If you aren’t totally grossed out by this, you really should be!

The risks far outweigh the benefits. Sure, the LBD fits, but tapeworm have been banned in the US due to the fact that while your little visitor is busy swallowing up your extra calories, it’s also feasting on all those vital nutrients that help to keep you alive and well. Some strains of these little critters can be deadly…read FATAL…and once you’ve killed the tapeworm off, there’s every possibility that the weight will just pile back on.

A second national paper described how women weren’t just dabbling with their weight loss methods either. According to sources, gals who love their giant heels are now investing in foot implants to make shoes more comfortable.

Why is it that we will all go to such lengths to look good? Beauty boils down to that old cliché – “It comes from within.” Instead of forking out hundreds upon thousands of pounds to ingest all kinds of bugs and slugs and pump up the soles of their feet, perhaps women should first look at improving their confidence, because isn’t that what everyone agrees makes a woman sexy?

Hell, in any case, if someone’s asked you to marry them then surely they love you for who you are, not who you would be if you lost five stone in two weeks?

For more information about a healthy lifestyle visit http://www.nhs.uk/LiveWell/healthy-eating/Pages/Healthyeating.aspx