Microwave cooking is dangerous. Of all the health scams we’ve discussed and uncovered on this site, I realized we’ve completely bypassed one of the most important ones. Maybe it’s because big-name health experts seemed to have it covered. We didn’t really feel like we had anything new to say.
That was before a friend of mine asked me to “prove” to her how terrible these appliances are for our health. She couldn’t find anything. A simple Internet search turned up more “myth” “hoax” and “snopes” results than I was comfortable with. As a matter of fact, they were the only results on the first two pages of Google!
No wonder there has been such an attitude shift around microwave ovens. I had to scroll all the way to page 5 to find any real scientific studies on their dangers.
This is when I realized it was important to talk about this issue, which has apparently been successfully buried by those who have a marked interest in keeping that little glass turntable spinning every night promptly at 6pm.
Here’s Why You Should Avoid Cooking in a Microwave Oven
- Alters the Natural Chemical Structure of Food
I don’t know if you remember the 1970s (or 1950s) science fiction movie, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. If not, let me explain the basic storyline: Humans are abducted and slowly replaced by alien replicas of themselves. These replicas look exactly the same as the people they’ve replaced but something is different, alien on the inside.
Essentially, this is what you’re doing when you cook your food in a microwave. It goes in as a plate of chicken, broccoli, and rice and comes out looking like exactly the same meal but something is different on the inside. The molecular structure has altered but there are no visible signs of this change.
A microwave oven provides heat by vibrating the water molecules in your food. When you cook or reheat your food in a microwave oven, those water molecules vibrate at an incredibly high speed, creating the molecular friction that heats the food. During this process, the water molecules are torn apart and deformed. The scientific name for this is “structural isomerism”.
This deformation of molecules extend to destroying the delicate molecules of the vitamins and phytonutrients in your food.
After World War II, the Russians did extensive studies on the effect of microwave cooking on the structural integrity of food. What they discovered was so staggering, they banned the use of microwave ovens in 1976. (Political changes lifted this ban and made them available again shortly thereafter).
- Results in Leukocytosis in Clinical Studies
One short-term study found alarming changes in the blood of individuals who ate milk and vegetables prepared in a microwave. Each of the eight individuals immediately displayed noticeable changes in their blood chemistry. Hemoglobin levels decreased while white cell and cholesterol levels were found to be elevated.
An elevated white blood cell count, called leukocytosis, is almost always an indicator of some type of inflammation. It indicates the immune system is responding to something foreign within the body. If this type of inflammatory indicator appeared each time a subject ate microwaved food, what does that say about the effect this type of cooking has on your body over the long-term?
Leukocytosis is also an early indicator of cancer. If you have elevated white blood cell counts during your next physical, your doctor may test you for malignancy.
- Introduces Carcinogenic Substances into Your Food
“Health Effect of Microwave Radiation – Microwave Ovens” written by Dr. Lita Lee outlines the damaging health effects of microwave ovens in explicit detail.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Amino acids in milk and cereal grains are transformed into carcinogenic chemicals.
- Cooking raw meat until it is sufficient for sanitary consumption causes the formation of d-Nitrosodienthanolamines, well-known carcinogens.
- The alkaloids of microwaved plants showed signs of carcinogenic chemicals.
- Simply thawing out frozen fruits converted harmless glucoside and galactoside into carcinogenic substances.
- Short-term exposure of raw and frozen vegetables to microwave radiation changed their natural alkaloids into carcinogens.
If you usually eat a relatively-healthy diet, you’re only concern is that food will turn into cancer-causing chemicals. (And trust us, that’s concern enough). But what if you’re more the fast-food or microwavable-meal type? You’re taking food that is already nutritionally-void, pumped full of chemicals, and wrapped in plastic. You then take that food and zap it in the microwave before eating it.
Congratulations, you’ve just added two more potentially cancer-causing chemicals!
A large majority of plastic containers, when heated, release a toxic chemical compound called dioxin. Even the US Environmental Protection Agency has backed the claim that this chemical is harmful by calling it a “serious public health threat”.
According to a study conducted by the California Breast Cancer Research Program: “Dioxins, widespread and persistent environmental pollutants, are a known human carcinogen and may contribute to the development of breast cancer.”
Bisphenol A (BPA), a compound found in most commercial plastic food containers, was researched in a study conducted by the University of Texas at Arlington. While BPA did not appear to trigger the development of cancer, it did appear to disrupt cells that defend against cancer growth.
- Significantly Decreases Nutritional Value
Studies have shown that microwaving vegetables destroys up to 97% of their original nutritional content. This means that an entire plate of organic vegetables placed into your microwave could enter healthy and emerge as nutritionally-void as a sawdust-filled fast-food burger.
Without adequate nutrition, your immune system cannot function optimally. A strong, healthy immune system is your first line of defense in the prevention of chronic disease, including cancer.
When the truth about the dangers of microwave ovens first surfaced, I wanted to see if giving it up would make any noticeable difference. At that point in my life, I had already made the switch to healthier eating habits and supplements. The microwave, I’ll reluctantly admit, was one of the last things to go. Why? Convenience.
One day, I decided to invest in toaster oven and a few glass cooking dishes. I started reheating my food in them at about 250 degrees for 20 minutes while I did other things. Within one week, my energy levels skyrocketed! I couldn’t believe it. I actually felt so much better.
Try it. All the studies we can throw at you won’t convince you the way your own personal experiment will. Give up your microwave for one month and see how you feel. If you haven’t already, switch to a healthier diet. Wean off the highly-processed foods and trade them in for whole-food fare.
You may be amazed at the difference in your health.
*****Recommended Research*****
Eat These the Next Time You Get the Munchies
We all do it. Junk food, unhealthy snacks, and microwave meals. It’s great to eat healthy, but sometimes when we’re in a rush it can be hard to avoid.
No matter how strong our willpower is, sometimes we just wind up reaching for the cookie jar or the potato chips when no one else is looking.
Maybe like me you avoid buying the things you love to eat. If I have something tasty and within reach, it is going to get eaten. I might be able to stave off for a day or two the desire to slice open a bag of cookies, but I give in eventually, as I am sure you do.
So what are we supposed to do, if this kind of behavior is continually contributing to the number of inches around our waist?
One solution is to replace the “bad” snacks, which is practically every piece of junk food that is sold at your local convenience store, with healthy snack alternatives. But what do those look like? More importantly, what do they TASTE like?
Carolyn Hansen, the author of 100 Healthy Raw Snacks and Treats , is quite aware of this problem. But she was determined to find snack recipes that did away with the usual cast of bad characters: sugar, flour, butter, and replace these with healthy substitutes that she could live with and maintain a healthy diet.
If you could see some of the photographs of the snacks and treats that she has come up with you would not hesitate to volunteer to be a guinea pig in her kitchen. Would you believe that you can make cheesecake alternatives that use no dairy, but look and taste delicious nonetheless? Apparently you can, and this is just one of the recipe types that litter her book.
For more information on this mouth-watering topic I recommend you get yourself across to her site at Healthy Raw Snacks and Treats.
The nice thing about Carolyn’s recipes… You don’t even need a stove to prepare them – these are all no cook recipes made from natural ingredients that can go straight to your mouth!
Regards,
Jessica Coffey
Publisher – Health Scams Exposed
Resources:
http://www.health-science.com/microwave_hazards.html
http://cbcrp.org.127.seekdotnet.com/research/PageGrant.asp?grant_id=2098
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140306163359.htm
