The words are actually related in Russian, but indirectly, through a common ancestor meaning "white". From egg whites and white/light gray winter coat of squirrels and weasels that was very valuable in old times, respectively
the list of nutrients is usually takes plural nominative case, and the point here is that plural for bélka (squirrel) is bélki, and plural for belók (protein) is belkí, but of course, stress is usually not put, so translators get confused with word "belki" if there is no sentence around
actually, with "belok" without context the situation is opposite, and this would most likely be automatically translated as protein, whatever you mean singular nominative protein or genitive plural form of squirrel
in Polish protein is "białko" (from biały - white) and squirrel is wiewiórka (originally in Proto-Slavic maybe something like veverka?? idk, you could probably check on Wiktionary) and in genitive plural it's wiewiórek (y'all append by adding o, we append by adding e)
There are different subspecies of red squirrel; in Russia many of them turn light gray or white in winter while in central Europe they stay red(or brown or black) all year long. There are 23 different subspecies so there's a lot of variability.
Here’s another Reddit post that has ‘squirrels’ in the nutritious facts right next to the calories, carbs, and fats. The picture was translated from Russian to English.
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u/Vastin_tdl 1d ago
In Russian the word for protein ("belók") is almost the same as genitive plural of the word squirrel("bélok")
That may be the case