A pig fact

Needing a break from Simenon yesterday evening (Wednesday), I spent a few minutes with reference 1, a book about raising pigs acquired on the expedition noticed at reference 2. A book which had started its public life in a Lusaka bookshop.

Having often wondered whether chocolate contained any psycho-active ingredients, I was interested to read that animal feed made from cacao shells - a by-product of chocolate manufacture - was toxic to pigs on account of the theobromine that it contained, theobromine being an alkaloid related to caffeine and what gives chocolate its bitter taste. From Wikipedia, it turns out that chocolate contains a lot more theobromine than caffeine - but that theobromine, while physiologically active, is not a stimulant of the central nervous system in the way of caffeine. The name 'theobromine' is nothing to do with bromine, with the former derived from one Greek 'brom' word, the latter from another.

With a slightly different story to be found at reference 4, the suggestion there being that we eat chocolate mainly because of its high fat and sugar content. I also learn that chocolate is not good for dogs either - who are apt to eat it if it is left lying around.

I'm not really satisfied by all this - but it will have to do for now!

References

Reference 1: The production and marketing of pigs - H R Davidson - 1953.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/02/return-to-chandos.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobromine.

Reference 4: https://biobeat.nigms.nih.gov/2020/02/the-chemistry-of-chocolate/. The source of the snap above.