By: Tara Green
Source: NaturalNews.com

While drinking Mountain Dew, have you ever seen (or perhaps felt on your tongue) a thick, jelly-like substance? Maybe you assumed the ingredients in the soda had gelled. According to Mountain Dew manufacturer Pepsi, you may have been ingesting some extra protein with your beverage in the form of a liquified rodent.

Lawsuit results in unusual defense

An Illinois man is suing Pepsi, claiming he found a mouse in his can of Mountain Dew. Ronald Bell of Edwardsville, a small town near St. Louis, alleges there was a mouse in a can of soda he purchased and drank in 2009. Bell says he spit out the mouse and called the company to complain. At the soda manufacturer’s request, he sent them the mouse corpse. Pepsi had a veterinary pathologist examine the body. Their scientific expert found the rodent could not have been in the can since the soda case was sealed in August 2008, and its body would have dissolved as a result of the acid in the soda.

Bell says that Pepsi destroyed the evidence in the case and is seeking judgment. Pepsi’s legal team has moved to dismiss the case. Bell’s suit initially also involved the owners of the convenience store chain where he purchased the beverage, but those defendants have been dropped from the case and an amended suit was filed. The trial was set to begin in late 2011; however a Madison County Circuit Court judge granted Pepsi another month to argue for dismissal.

Quench your thirst with some chemicals

NaturalNews has reported many times in the past on the health dangers of soda, including the fact that Mountain Dew and other fruit-flavored beverages contain a flame retardant chemical. The bright green color of this soda obviously derives from food colorings, many of which also have negative health consequences. Like many sodas, Mountain Dew derives its fizzy quality from phosphoric acid, a substance which health experts have long warned can destroy tooth enamel.

Now it appears that, in order to win a lawsuit, Pepsi has conducted its own animal testing on its products and is putting forth evidence that their soda causes organic tissues, as the legal brief states, to become a “jelly-like substance.” One has to wonder whether, in the interest of protecting themselves from similar future lawsuits, their scientific experts put dead mice in containers in each of their beverage products to compare the rates of disintegration.

Let’s hope that anyone who thinks drinking Mountain Dew is a relatively harmless dietary indulgence hears about this case and thinks twice before swigging some of the bright green beverage. If a mouse can become jelly over the course of the shelf-life of a can of soda, imagine what it can do to your body, especially if you drink this substance regularly over the course of several years. An early advertising slogan for Mountain Dew, back in the 1960s, was “Ya-Hoo Mountain Dew. It’ll tickle you innards.” Maybe Pepsi can revive this slogan, changing the word “tickle” to “dissolve.” Or perhaps, given the soda’s more recent marketing association with extreme sports, they can present mouse-chugging as a “wild” activity to fuel skateboarding achievement.

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