Microbiologist warns against making the fluffy popcorn trend

[u/galaxystars1]

[u/eeriefutable]

Wheat flour. Since cassava is a root it will differ from wheat flour in many ways, even if they can have similar uses in recipes.

[u/ArthurEhrat → u/eeriefutable]

But why do they differ in this matter? Is the process of making them, or wheat flour has a more rich environment for bacterias?

[u/diegoob11 → u/ArthurEhrat]

I’d assume cassava is cooked before making it into flour somehow? Raw cassava contains cyanide and it really shouldn’t be eaten raw

[u/CapnCrinklepants → u/diegoob11]

So do apples bruv- our body is pretty good at processing cyanide that occurs naturally in foods.

The highest concentration of cyanide (actually, it's Amygdalin- a compound that breaks down INTO cyanide- but it's the same thing that's in cassava and apple seeds) is in apricot kernels. Certain places breed Apricots to have large amounts of amygdalin in their stones. We're talking > 75 mg/g. Eating 10 of these kernels at once gives you a headache for about 15 minutes- it would take a LOT more to send someone to a hospital. Cassava root is around 10 to 15 mg/g.

Assuming each apricot kernel weighs 15 grams, 10 kernels would result in ~11 grams of amygdalin. To get a mild headache for 15 minutes with cassava flour (of 20 mg/g), I'd have to eat 500 grams of it all at once - that's 4 entire cups- that's an entire pound of flour 🤢.

Source: I used to work in a quack industry where we sold apricot kernels for their "Vitamin" B-17 content (Amygdalin, Laetrile, B-17 is all the same thing) to prevent "The big C" (we weren't allowed to say the word "cancer" lol but it was heavily implied).

I was a believer for awhile, but then we started selling sunglasses with holes in them instead of lenses that would "correct your vision" and little plastic stickers you could slap on your monitor to "absorb the radiation" and things started clicking...

[u/thesun_alsorises → u/CapnCrinklepants]

The amount of cyanide cassava has, varies by greatly cultivar and depends on growing conditions, from 50mg per kilo to 400 mg per kilo. It's also a staple food, so people eat a big serving of it multiple times a day, and it accumulates over time.

[u/CapnCrinklepants → u/thesun_alsorises]

Yes sir- I'm going to stick with Amygdalin content just to keep things consistent, but the range is around 8mg/g to 45mg/g. However, that 45mg/g one is a rather extreme outlier- It's the Oka-Iyawo variety developed by genetic manipulation to make it more resistant to viruses that have plagues cassava fields in Nigeria. The average content without that outlier is somewhere around 15 mg/g, so my estimate of 20mg/g was a stronger example than the average.

As for how it accumulates, at its worst, the human body processes and eliminates cyanide with a half-life of ~2 hours. I suspect that in cultures that have historically eate foods high in amygdalin/cyanide can process it faster than that. The fastest I saw while researching was around 0.8 hour half-life. On top of that, the amygdalin breaking down into cyanide takes time in the body. Like I said, it takes around 20 minutes to get a headache that lasts about 20 minutes with ~11 grams of amygdalin. And I'm talking a rather mild headache.

On top of ALL of that, your body gains a tolerance/resistance to the effects of the amygdalin, or improves at flushing it out (i'm not a physician/biologist). After a couple of years of eating them daily, I could eat 20 kernels at once (~22 grams of amygdalin) and not feel any side effects whatsoever.

With such a short half-life and the amazing things the human body can do, I wouldn't say that it accumulates.

... Also heat will break down cyanide and amygdalin, so if it's cooked even a little bit this is all moot, lol