Green tea is believed to have originated in China thousands of years ago, where it was recognized for its health benefits. And scientists continue to probenew uses for it. Some studies suggest it can help protect against cancer. Thanks to the health food craze, green tea sales are currently rising sharply. The Tea Association of the USA reports that green tea sales jumped more than 60 percent in the last decade. And in Canada, government data shows that profits for green tea imports more than quadrupled  . Nowadays, green tea seems to be everywhere. In shops, you can buy green tea leaves prepared in a number of ways: fried, powdered or steamed. Despite green tea's healthy reputation, the drink was once considered dangerous. Where did this silly opinion come from? Blame the Victorians, of course, who lived in a period of English history in the 19th century. That's when some of the silliest theories about green tea arose. One 1882 book described strange experiments to show the harm of green tea. Apply some green tea below a frog's stomach, and you could cause paralysis   in its legs, the book claimed. And injecting green tea into a dog would cause it to lose control of its legs and tail. The book went so far as to declare that green tea could kill someone. At that time, a green tea panic was sweeping England. Even Charlotte Bronte, a famous English writer, refused to touch the drink, fearing its terrible effects it would have on her nerves. Some of the fear was well reasonable, though. English consumers preferred brighter leaves, over dull olive- color1ed ones. As a result, tea sellers would dye   their products, using anything including poisons like "Prussian blue". Even today, mixing green tea with chemicals remains a problem. But those rare instances aren't stopping Westerners from raising their pinky fingers in salute  to green tea and all its nutritional advantages. Bottoms up! Why was green tea once considered dangerous?
Someone was killed by it. Books spread negative opinions. Many Victorians suffered from it. People witnessed terrible experiments.