Seriously, are African populations being poisoned by their food?!? I was watching some short-form videos and noticed that some African immigrants to the US were making a dish from fresh cassava/manioc root (the plant that tapioca comes from) and didn't do anything more than briefly rinse it before they cooked it (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQEh59RCjGK/?igsh=OTlrNTl6bHl5MDNo). This threw up BIG red flags because I recalled several instances in South America where natives explained to me the importance of processing the root (grinding, soaking, fermenting, drying, etc.) or you would run the risk of cyanide poisoning. 

This sent me down the rabbit hole and I found a study indicating exactly that! People in the DRC are being poisoned by cynide and it's giving them learning disabilities (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10790982/). While I know that literacy and IQ are multi-factorial, I wonder if the maps shown in this post might show correlation throughout African Nations? James Watson, the pioneer of DNA studies, is confident that blacks have lower IQ from genetics, which I'm not trying to prove or disprove, but I am curious is some of those disparities might be due to inherent ability to clear cyanide from their bodies too? I haven't really fleshed out this theory. Is there some kind of money involved in Big Cassava Ag or is there a group that is encouraging unprocessed cassava consumption to intentionally cause brain damage to massive African populations for some kind of advantage?

Please everyone, tell me if this merits further looking into and who should be made aware of this? This has to be at least as impactful/plausible as leaded gasoline and endocrine disruptors right?!?

Unreported Low-Level Cyanide Poisoning is Causing Intellectual Disabilities in Large Portion of African Population?