Cyanide in the diet

Galloping noises on the net speaking of food poisoning by cyanide. The word thrilled because everyone or almost know that cyanide is highly poisonous, used by the Germans during the Second World War. And now we talk about in the world of food.

What is it really?
Smoking is the leading cause of cyanide exposure! However, their worst: it contains arsenic, ammonia, acetone, cadmium, formaldehyde, benzopyrene, glycol, ammonium sulfate, coumarin, eugenol (a phenol), theobromine, glycyrrhizin, and pyridine ... Nice cocktail, right? For more information on smoking, visit the Center website devoted to anti-smoking aid and support to stop smoking.

Drinking water is not bad either ... The presence of cyanide is due to the rejection of industries. However, Health Canada states that "maintaining a residual free chlorine in neutral or alkaline conditions will result in very low concentrations of cyanide in the treated water." For more information and make your own mind you, click here.

The bitter apricot kernels contain cyanide and are dangerous! However, who among you regularly consume apricot kernels??

And then their cassava ...
Indeed, information, noise circulating about the dangers of cyanide is mainly cassava. It is in the dock because it contains natural cyanogens may cause neurological and thyroid abnormalities ... But our organization has the means to detoxify cyanide absorbs it, provided of course that is efficient in this respect.

How is the detoxification of hydrocyanic acid (cyanide) in the body?
The ingestion of cyanide in food led to its detoxification in the body through its conversion to thiocyanate; a sulfur compounded having goitrogenic properties (means, which causes goiter, swelling or enlargement of the thyroid gland). Oops!

And that's the B12 that influences the likely conversion of cyanide to thiocyanate ... Complicated? Not so much ... In a healthy individual, the balance between cyanide and thiocyanate (largely present in body fluids, including saliva) is constantly maintained through the consumption of proteins and especially of sulfur amino acids.

Detour on the sulfur amino acids
These are methionine and cysteine, present, mainly in animal products (sole, tuna, beef, chicken, but also cheese and egg yolk), but they are also found in soy flour, peanuts / roasted peanuts, lentils, beans, pistachios and almonds). Methionine is essential (the body does not synthesize), cysteine ​​not, but it deteriorates as vitamin B6, it is better to ensure its contribution through food or supplementation. In an individual who is deficient in sulfur amino acids, the ability to detoxify cyanide (determined by the dynamic equilibrium between cyanide and thiocyanate) would be reduced making it more vulnerable to the toxic effect of cyanide.

However, be aware that the increase of thiocyanate in the blood (which can be caused by excessive intake of cyanide) blocks iodine and prevents it from entering the thyroid to form thyroidal hormones (hence the goitre due to hypothyroidism). Moreover, a thyroidal deficiency during fetal life began at birth or low birth weight leads to cortical neurons. And that leads to nothing else but a lack of development of the brain, then permanent damage to it and the mental cretinism (ataxia neuropathic tropical!).



Back on cassava!
So, he would be accused of causing cretinism (we must use mass in our various governments ...) and goiter (enlargement of the thyroid gland which we just discussed, due to iodine deficiency) ...

It was observed that in areas (usually African) where people consume large quantities of insufficiently processed cassava, they suffer from excessive absorption of cyanide (a substance naturally present in the cassava root) resulting in a hypersecretion iodine, but its reduced uptake by the thyroid (due to the production of thiocyanate) and shows, so endemic goitre and, in some regions of anomalous neurological newborns. By cons, this process of inhibition of iodine does not continue if children are breast fed!

Cassava is traditionally soaked in water for several days to carry away the cyanide. It is a processing operation is called retting. The species the most common cassava is soft, very lightly loaded cyanide. However, be aware that cyanide is a natural protective food against his attackers, a natural pesticide, somehow. The problem is that its rate increases in drought (new consequence of global warming) and that, in addition, we have introduced the cultivation of species of cassava, more resistant, but loaded with cyanide without changing the habits of transformation required!

In the Amazon, in the heart of the jungle, some natives consume one kg of cassava per day, fresh and cooked. Meanwhile, they drink up to three liters of beer and fermented cassava person does not suffer from goitre, or cretinism! Why? Well, because these natives also consume very large quantities of animal products (meat and fish), which gives them the necessary amount of sulfur amino acids and iodine, which is not the case of indigenous African consumer's cassava, which is the main source of food ...

So the whole truth (or so) of cyanide in the diet and more specifically in cassava. It is obvious that the quantities of cassava we eat are definitely insignificant and in any case, the flour produced worldwide is produced from cassava sweet, traditionally treated, and therefore, it is absolutely devoid of cyanide!

We must remain vigilant to the campaigns of poisoning information that could very well be orchestrated by the food industry who has been increasingly questioned and criticized by health experts in the diet, which by advocating the removal of traditional cereals, ratiboisent a lucrative market ... The real culprits of our absorption of cyanide are industrial and toxic waste and cigarette manufacturers.

Keep the virtues of cassava attractive alternative with its fibers, its calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and vitamins A, beta carotene, C and B9!