If not properly detoxified, eating bitter cassava can lead to:

• Acute cyanide poisoning: Symptoms include nausea, dizziness, rapid breathing, convulsions, and death within hours.
• Konzo: A paralyzing neurological disease affecting the legs, primarily seen in malnourished populations in Central Africa.
• Tropical ataxic neuropathy: A chronic condition causing blindness, deafness, and loss of coordination.

In fact, cassava is responsible for more cases of food-related cyanide poisoning worldwide than any other food crop, according to the World Health Organization.

How Does Poisoning Happen?

Cyanide poisoning from cassava is not random; it often results from survival under extreme conditions:

• Drought or famine: Forces people to harvest cassava too early, when cyanide levels are highest.
• Lack of water: Prevents proper soaking and washing.
• Poverty and food insecurity: Limits access to diverse diets, making people reliant on a single, risky crop.
• Lack of knowledge or time: Traditional detox methods are skipped due to urgency.

In many cases, families consume cassava that hasn’t been soaked, fermented, dried, or cooked long enough to remove the toxins.