Cassava
Food · Vegetable · Food, Typed Supps
Cassava is a starchy root that gives you quick energy — but eating it raw or undercooked can make you seriously sick.
Stage by stage
- Starch Breakdown (Mouth): Chewing and salivary amylase begin converting cassava's dense starch into simpler sugars.
- Acid Processing (Stomach): Stomach acid further breaks down the starch, while properly cooked cassava carries only trace, safe levels of its natural cyanogenic compounds.
- Nutrient Absorption (Small Intestine): The small intestine absorbs the resulting glucose along with vitamin C, potassium, and manganese into the bloodstream.
- Energy Delivery (Muscles & Brain): Circulating glucose fuels muscles and the brain, typically within one to two hours of eating.
Timing
Cassava is eaten as a staple carbohydrate with meals rather than at a specific time; pairing it with a protein or fat source helps moderate its high glycemic response.
Time to effect
- Hours: Cooked cassava's starch raises blood glucose and delivers usable energy within about 30 minutes to 2 hours of eating, similar to other high-glycemic starchy staples like potatoes or white rice.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.
Satiety
147 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — high. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.
Environmental footprint
1.3 kg CO2e and 0 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Cassava" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Cheap — roughly £2.5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 165.4
- Protein: 0.6g
- Carbohydrate: 36.7g
- of which sugars: 1.3g
- Fat: 0.3g
- of which saturated: 0g
- Fibre: 4.9g
- Sodium: 2mg
Food vs. supplement
Cassava's nutritional value comes from eating the properly prepared cooked root, flour, or tapioca; no supplement replicates it, and isolated tapioca starch provides calories but almost none of the vitamin C, potassium, or fiber found in the whole root.
Kitchen tip
Peel cassava thickly, then boil it in plenty of water for at least 20-30 minutes (discarding the cooking water) or soak it for several hours before cooking — never eat cassava raw or undercooked.
Common myth
"Cassava is a poisonous plant that's never safe to eat." In reality: Raw or poorly processed bitter cassava does contain cyanogenic glycosides (linamarin and lotaustralin) that can cause acute cyanide poisoning or the paralytic disease konzo, but the traditional preparation of peeling, soaking, and thoroughly cooking cassava reduces its cyanogen content by an estimated 90-99%, which is why properly prepared cassava remains a safe staple food for an estimated 800 million people worldwide.
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