A squirrel in Jyvaskyla, central Finland was in the habit of scurrying in through the open front door of a departmental store, twice a day, every day and make a beeline to the confectionery section. A quick shopper, the furry tailed animal would ignore the many items on display and go straight for the "Kinder Surprise", a chocolate-shelled, egg shaped sweet with a little plastic toy inside. The squirrel would remove the foil carefully, eat the chocolate and leave the store with the toy. But far from getting caught, the shop-lifter went on to steal the hearts of the store personnel and customers. As the story of the “kinder-squirrel” spread, many Finns came forward to dip into their wallet to ensure that the store wouldn’t ever turn away the chocoholic.
But unfortunately for the chocolate thief, his fame proved to be his undoing. The city’s health authorities woke up to the health hazard and ordered the store to ensure that there were no rodent visitations to its food zone. Animal activists too appeared on the scene and warned that the consumption of human food and perhaps also the plastic toy was extremely injurious to squirrel health. Consequently, the store, which normally has its doors open in summer, now has them shut, to keep the unwelcome visitor out.
The poor squirrel is possibly holed up in a tree, with severe withdrawal symptoms. For laboratory tests on rats have established that such a thing as sugar dependency really exists and the craving for sweets could be a form of addiction, sharing some of the physiological characteristics of drug dependence. Since all modern commercial chocolate products contain substantial amounts of sugar, this partly explains chocolate's supposed addictive properties.
General sweetness aside, there are various chemical elements specific to chocolate that may help to stimulate cravings. In fact, chocolate contains over 300 chemicals and it is not known how all of these affect humans.
But there is one particular component called Theobromine, which is a toxic compound in chocolate. Unsweetened (baker's) chocolate contains 8-10 times the amount of Theobromine as milk chocolate. Semi-sweet chocolate falls roughly in between the two for Theobromine content. White chocolate contains Theobromine, but in very small amounts.
Veterinarians warn that animals must never be fed on chocolates because safe doses for us could be lethal doses for our pets. The toxin compound in the chocolates is known to affect the hearts, kidneys and central nervous systems of animals. How badly and how soon the effects show depends upon the size of the animal, the type of chocolate, and quantity of chocolate ingested. The toxin does not harm us because humans can break down and excrete theobromine much more efficiently than animals. Dogs, cats and other domestic animals (and possibly squirrels), metabolise theobromine more slowly than humans. The chemical stays in the animal’s system long enough for it to cause harm.
