I found these comments on Wikipeadia:
Cassava is the third largest source of carbohydrates for human food in the world. Cassava is classified as "sweet" or "bitter" depending on the level of toxic cyanogenic glucosides; improper preparation of bitter cassava causes a disease called konzo. Nevertheless, farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, and thieves.
Konzo is a paralytic disease among very poor rural populations whose diets for the weeks and months prior to onset consist almost
exclusively of roots of bitter cassava.
