What should you know about microwave ovens

Advances in technology are not necessarily beneficial for human health. So are we paying with our health for all those conveniences?

Microwave oven is only one example. Since 1957 Russians have done studies on the effects microwave have not only on food, but also on the body. Russian researchers showed that the microwave field created by the ovens could cause health problems within a five-hundred-meter radius, including deformed composition of the blood and lymph areas, degeneration and destabilization of cell membranes, interference with the brain’s electrical nerve impulses, central and autonomic nervous system problems, and a cumulative loss of vital energy. In 1976 Russia even banned the use of microwaves! ₁

How Microwave oven works

• The microwave emits electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range.
• These waves cause polar molecules in the food to rotate and produce thermal energy through a process called dielectric heating.
• Water, fats, sugars, and certain other molecules absorb the microwaves and vibrate, creating heat.
• The heat cooks the food fairly evenly from the inside out.₂

Is microwaved food healthy?

There are many problems with microwave ovens; it is not only the appliances themselves, but the poor foods, molecular changes to microwaved food and the plastic containers used. With our busy, on-the-go society, many what people are using microwaves to cook or to reheat ultra-processed, food-like products that don’t do your health any favour._2. But the are  health risks involves such as :

1. Heating prepared meats in a microwave sufficiently for human consumption created Nitrosodiethanolamine (a well known carcinogen), a destabilisation of active protein molecules.
2. Free radicals were formed within trace-minerals in plant substances, especially root vegetables. Due to chemical alterations within food substances, malfunctions occurred in the lymphatic systems, causing degeneration of the immune system’s capacity to protect itself against cancerous growth.
3. The unstable breakdown of micro-waved food altered their elemental food substances, leading to digestive disorders.
4. Ingesting micro- waved food statistically increased the incident of stomach and intestinal cancers, as well as degeneration of peripheral cellular tissues with gradual breakdown of digestive and excretory system function.
5. A significant decrease in the nutritional value of all foods studies, particularly the bioavailability of B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotrophics (substances that improve liver function).

Also a significant acceleration of structural disintegration of all food occurs. The most controlled research was almost stopped, without anyone being aware of its controversial results, before being published. Two Swiss researchers, Hans Hertel and Bernard H. Blanc, sequestered subjects under close scrutiny and tested their blood after random eating food that was either microwaved or conventionally cooked and found the following:

Blood haemoglobin levels decreased significantly after ingesting microwaved food, both total levels and the amount contained in each red blood cell. White blood cells levels have increased for no other reason, besides foods were microwaved. Low density lipids ( a bad type of cholesterol)  has increased  relative to low density lipids (good cholesterol)  in those who had eaten microwaved  food. They conducted a small study—self-financed because Switzerland’s National Fund argued that “there was no need for research in this particular field of science”₇

An American woman had died after a nurse warmed up her blood  transfusion in a microwave for a hip surgery.

In a 1989 letter to the editor of The Lancet, Austrian scientists summarized research showing that microwave treatment of milk formula produced hazardous changes in amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) that could lead to “structural, functional, and immunological changes”; they also reported the presence in microwaved milk formula of an altered form of the amino acid praline which, unlike normal proline, is toxic to the brain, liver and kidneys.₅ In a press blurb that picked up on the Lancet letter, the eye-catching headline screamed, “Super-heated babies’ milk can lead to brain damage”; the article reported that “the timesaving ovens turn proteins in milk into poisons that attack vital organs. . . with possibly fatal results”.₆

Plastic in the Microwave

Another risk when using microwaves is that cancer-causing compounds from plastic containers and plastic wrap can leach into your food.₃

FDA science policy analyst Catherine Bailey says “When you microwave, it’s a good idea not to have the plastic touch the food.”_4. This is an ill  advice,  as the policy analyst seems to be ignorant about the dangers of microwave owens.

This is especially important advice for mothers who are currently heating their baby’s bottle in the microwave. Many mothers already know that microwaves heat liquids unevenly, so milk heated in the microwave could have hot spots that scald your baby. But the greater risk is that hormone-disrupting chemicals from plastic bottles heated in the microwave leach into the milk.

Bisphenol A, a chemical toxin that affects neural and reproductive development, is present in some popular plastic baby bottles and low doses of the chemical are linked to cancers, early puberty, obesity, and diabetes.

 

How to cook and reheat food without a microwave oven?

The easiest way to avoid the damaging effects of microwaves is not to use them at all and look for alternatives.

• Foods, especially fruits and vegetables, are best eaten raw, parboiled quickly or lightly steamed to retain nutrients.
• To heat water for hot drinks,  please use a kettle.   You can use a stainless steel steamer to reheat or cook food
• You can invest in a turbo oven but they are not cheap! A convection oven is an option then.
• Or you can use  common sense and use traditional ways of cooking and reheating, and get a slow cooker.
  

  Stainless steel steamer is a healthy alternative.

  References:

1.Debunking the Myth That Microwave Ovens Are Harmless – The Weston A. Price Foundation (westonaprice.org)

2.Are Microwaves Safe? Find Out What the Research Actually Says (foodrevolution.org)

3.Does Plastic in Microwave Pose Health Problems? Wall Street Journal, 12 Oct 1998. http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Microwave-Health-Problems.htm

4.Lubec G, Wolf C, Bartosch B. Aminoacid isomerisation and microwave exposure. Lancet. 1989;2(8676):1392-3.

5.Super-heated babies’ milk can lead to brain damage. Examiner, Feb. 13, 1990, p. 21.

6.Herzallah SM. Influence of microwaving and conventional heating of milk on cholesterol contents and cholesterol oxides formation. Pak J Nutr. 2005;4(2):85-8.

7.The Dangers of Microwave Ovens Everyone Needs to Know (bodyecology.com)

 

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