Tea has been around for centuries. So why would Lipton conduct research on animals to examine its safety?

It was all a plan to prove bogus health claims made by the company that failed to show any evidence of being accurate.

According to PETA, investigators subjected animals to the following experiments:

Rabbits: “fed a high-fat, cholesterol-laden diet, leading to extreme hardening of the arteries. They were then fed tea to see if it affected the lesions that formed on the animals’ arteries. After the experiment, the rabbits’ heads were cut off.”

Mice: “bred to suffer from a painful bowel inflammation were fed tea ingredients in order to see if the tea had any effect on their condition. After the test, experimenters killed the mice by suffocating them or breaking their necks.”

Rats: “forced to eat a high-sugar diet, and then tea was given to the animals to see if it had an impact on their sugar-induced brain damage. Other rats had their abdominal wall punctured and were fed radioactively labeled tea ingredients through a tube in their stomachs in order to examine the absorption of tea in the body. Then they were killed, frozen with liquid nitrogen, and crushed.”

Piglets: “exposed to E. coli toxin and then fed tea in order to see if the tea affected fluid loss and diarrhea. As part of the tests, experimenters cut the pigs’ intestines apart while the animals were still alive. The piglets were then killed.”

A recent article in Forbes highlights the issue of companies that often spend big money on research in an effort to prove outlandish claims. Not only are these tests not required by regulatory officials, there’s simply no prior evidence that would point a legitimate fact seeking scientist to investigate them. The Federal Trade Commission is starting to crack down on such companies that make the claims, but it’s unsure of how many businesses are doing experiments similar to Lipton in desperation. Some more scientific studies on tea and health have been conducted on humans though.

In the meantime, you can brew a cup of tea made by Honest Tea, Twinings, Stash Tea, and Luzianne for a cruelty-free caffeinated experience while you write to the parent company of Lipton, Unilever, and demand they stop these ridiculous experiments.

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