1 hour ago, superal said:

Out of curiosity how did you know you had the tapeworm inside your body for 6 months ?  were you undergoing a course of treatment for it and what were the symptoms ? 

 

I knew because it can take up to 3 months before the gravid proglottids (the little segments that make up a tapeworm) start to separate and crawl out of your anus. I saw these in my underwear. I was a bit slow on the uptake and it wasn't until I noticed them wiggling around in my stool that I realised I had a case of Taenia Saginata (beef tapeworm). I went to the doctor to obtain the appropriate treatment. I had disturbed bowel movements for months prior to diagnosis. Symptoms can be a lot worse too.  It only takes a few days to kill it.

 

If you want to eat rare Thai beef, freeze it first as that kills the Cysticerci. These days I mainly eat Australian and NZ beef. I don't eat pork, but pork tapeworms are far more dangerous.

Every Brit will happily tear chapattis, nans and the like, leaving the bit they didn't take, which will be eaten by someone else. A dry, abrasive bread is exactly the kind of thing that removes everything from your hands. What do we know from recent research? The solution to many really serious gut problems is a fecal transplant - Google it. I'd worry less. You can get "things" from being infected, and much, much worse things from not being infected.  

On 3/31/2018 at 3:49 PM, Shiver said:

Doesn't bother me with sharing habits, though I will use a 'transport spoon' between the food and myself just out of courtesy.

 

Last week for example I was sat eating peanuts in a dish with some thai friends and used a spoon to put them in my hand.  They noticed and copied.  Really wasn't necessary, but they took it upon themselves to do so.

 

 

Yes! The definition of a gentleman. Someone is sitting at a table and out of ignorance drinks from a finger-bowl. What will a gentleman do? He will, of course, instantly drink from his own finger-bowl in order to spare the other person any embarrassment.