Also have not had tapioca since I was a kid. My mom used it as thickening in some fruit pies a few times. Never made tapioca pudding that I recall. Will put it on my bucket list.
Like most foods, there is a huge difference between the natural food and what is left after processing. The actual cassava plant does have vitamins, minerals, and protein, and is a healthy food that is similar to a yam or potato, and is eaten in many countries, especially in South America . Tapioca, is the processed starch from the cassava plant, and is similar to any other thickening starch, such as corn starch or potato starch, that we use for thickening gravy and other foods. @Bobby Cole likes making custard, and he enjoys having tapioca in the custard, making it basically a tapioca pudding, so we try to keep some on hand for him to make his pudding out of. Sometimes, I cook some rice, and then he adds that to his pudding and makes it into rice pudding. Here is a chart that shows the nutrition from the actual cassava plant. One interesting thing is that it is not safe to eat until it has been cooked, so a person has to know how to prepare the cassava.