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Will you use Microwave to cook?

 

Late at night, you have a coffee craving and you have a steaming cup within seconds, you come home from work and you food is heated to perfection, Microwaves have become like the jinn in the lamp fulfilling all our desires in minutes. They are helmed as ‘smart appliances’ as they use minimum oil for cooking.

With so many benefits and convenience involved, we hardly think about the safety of microwaves, we just assume they are safe because they are present in the market and so must be tested and researched. Let’s just question this assumption and then make a decision about their safety.

Let’s first understand how Microwave ovens works,

Microwave ovens work on the action of microwaves which are invisible waves of electric and magnetic energy. Microwave ovens have a tube called as magnetron that produces micro radiation that penetrates directly into the food and is absorbed by asymmetrical molecules like water, fats and sugar. These molecules vibrate when absorbing the microwave, the vibrations occur several million times in a second which causes heat.

Since it deals with molecule of food itself, some say this vibration of food molecules changes its composition and reduces the nutritional content of the food.

Research

We give you what the official authority says and what research is available against the microwaves.

FDA’s stand

According research by Food and Drug Administration (US), “Microwave cooking does not reduce the nutritional value of foods any more than conventional cooking. In fact, foods cooked in a microwave oven may keep more of their vitamins and minerals, because microwave ovens can cook more quickly and without adding water.†FDA also squashes the argument that Microwave radiation poses a threat by stating that the exposure is very weak to cause harm.

With FDA supporting Microwave cooking, it has penetrated 90% of homes in USA and has 1.2 million users in India. This number is sure to grow as the convenience attracts more consumers every year. The research below is what raises questions about microwaves. Most of the research is not accepted in all scientific circles but since they are not many studies on microwaves, these cannot be written off. We give all the research present and give you the choice of making a well thought of decision.

Carcinogenic properties

Russians were some of the first ones to do extensive research on microwave. After studying its effects on human body, they banned microwaves in 1974. Though the ban no longer exists, it started a stir regarding the safety of microwaves.

The study findings of the Russian research were published by Atlantis Raising Educational Center in Portland, Oregon. The results are as follows:

• Microwaving milk and cereal grains converted some of their amino acids into carcinogens.
• Microwaving prepared meats sufficiently to insure sanitary ingestion caused formation of d-Nitrosodienthanolamines, a well-known carcinogen.
• Extremely short exposure of raw, cooked or frozen vegetables converted their plant alkaloids into carcinogens.
• There was a drop of 60-90 % of nutritional value (of food) after microwaving it. There was a drop in vitamin B complex, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals in all foods tested.

Effect on physiology of Blood

Mr. Hans Hertel features prominently in the anti- microwave brigade. He was a Swiss food scientist who worked with a major food company. In 1991 he along with a Lausanne University professor published a paper indicating that food cooked in microwave ovens could pose a greater risk to health than food cooked by conventional means.

His study of the affect of nutrients on blood physiology showed that the changes that took place in the participants' blood that could cause deterioration in the human system.

Participants who were given food cooked in microwave showed decrease in all hemoglobin and cholesterol values, especially the ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values. There was also a dip in the number of white blood cells for short term when they consumed food cooked in microwave.

After these findings were published, the Swiss authority passed a gag order against Hertel and Blanc who worked with him. In 1998, the decision was reversed.

Breast milk turns toxic

In the December 1989 issue of the British medical journal, Lancet, it was reported that microwaving baby formula created a disturbing result. Certain amino acids - the building blocks of proteins -undergo structural changes that render them biologically unusable. One of the amino acids, L- proline was changed into a form known to be toxic to the nervous system and to the kidney.

Vegetables lose anti oxidants

A Spanish study published in the journal of Food and Agriculture in 2003 shows that microwave causes the foods to lose their nutritional content. According to the study, broccoli lost about 97% of flavonoids, 74% of sinapics and 87% of caffeoyl-quinc derivatives, which are anti-oxidants compounds. Steamed broccoli on the other hand loses only 11%, 0% and 8 % of these compounds.

Other than the other disadvantages of microwaves are food cooked in microwaves are vulnerable to microbes, radiation emitted by microbes can affect the fertility of humans and can even pose risk of cancer. These are yet to be proven by the researches.To read more about Will you use Microwave to cook?

About the Author

Medimanage Health Insurance India

Do you think the rise in the cancer rate among the general population could be attributed to microwave ovens?

Most people have microwave ovens now. Food is bombarded with radiation and then people eat it. Surely this could cause cancer?
Is there any scientific basis for my theory or am I completely wrong.
I'll be glad to admit it if I'm wrong.

There is no scientific evidence that suggests that eating food heated in microwave ovens causes cancer in humans. To understand why, you have to understand exactly how a microwave works.

Microwaves heat food and liquid by bombarding them with radiation at a specific frequency, around 2.4 Gigahertz. This frequency lies somewhere in between radio waves (what your cell phone uses) and infrared waves (what your body puts out). At high concentrations, this radiation causes the molecules in food to spin around and align themselves with the electrical field generated by the radiation. This rotating motion is converted into heat. It's also why water heats up faster than thick objects like steak or beef, because water molecules are highly polar (meaning one end is negatively charged, while the other is positive, so they are more sensitive to changes in the electrical field).

Thus, microwaves do not actually change the chemical composition of food in any way. They only excite the molecules that make up food, causing them to heat up due to kinetic energy.

In addition, due to its relatively low frequency, microwaves do not have enough energy to disrupt the DNA inside your cells (which is what cancer really is, mutated DNA). In fact, you are more likely to get cancer from being exposed to visible light than microwaves because light is much higher up on the frequency scale than microwaves.

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