Are microwave ovens safe?

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Born2bwire

Originally posted by: Eli
Guys, I'm not wrong about the fact that cooking food reduces nutritional content. That is a fact. I guess it depends on the specific definition of "nutritional content". I realize that cooking can make some things more accessible and digestible by our bodies, but the act of heating food destroys just about every vitamin, enzyme, phytonutrient, etc in the food.

That is why raw is always better when it comes to things like vegetables. Steaming vegetables is the best way of preserving nutritional content, but you still lose a lot even with such a "gentle" process.

Raw is not always better with vegetables. The cooking process unlocks much of the nutrients that our bodies cannot get at on its own. We aren't cows. You should take a look at what needs to be done to maize to make it nutritionally viable. When maize was first brought to Europe, it caused malnutrition because the Europeans did not know to treat maize with an alkali. Take a look at maize and pellagra.

If I just put a refrigerated apple in the MW and heat it to room temperature, am I destroying a significant amount of its food value, e.g. vitamins?

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Muse
I've seen conflicting information online. Wikipedia's article states that there's no evidence that microwaved food is harmful, but a number of websites state otherwise. What's the truth?

What I'm wondering about is talk about ionizing radiation, possibly resulting in carcinogenisis. Do you think that microwave ovens render food less nutritious or in some way unhealthy or toxic?

I know that microwave radiation is an issue, but nowadays I think the door seals on the ovens are pretty decent, although you never know unless you test to see if your oven's leaking.

There's the issue of electromagnetic radiation, but I'm not terribly concerned about that. I believe that MW ovens put out not always insignificant amounts, but you can always step back from the oven while it's on. If you are 4 feet away, you are probably getting 2 milligauss or less EMF's, which is considered a reasonably safe level even over time. I'm not concerned about that, although I don't make a habit of standing still right next to my microwave oven while it's running.

Let me rephrase your question:

The encyclopedia brittanica says "microwaves are safe" but there are three crazy guys on the street corner with poorly xeroxed pamphplets claiming they're dangerous. Who should I believe?

 

[OutHouse]

my father in law is retired from Rocky Flats and he used to go ape shit when he saw me microwave our babies bottles to warm up the milk...

he said that it breakes down the enzymes or something....

 

[OutHouse]

oh go put a grape in your microwave. that is always loads of fun.

 

[Eeezee]

Microwaves don't use ionizing radiation. So... there you go. Conventional (convection) ovens emit much more ionizing radiation than a microwave oven, and by that I mean very little at all.

Microwaves are just as safe as convection ovens, they just don't make your food crispy and can cook unevenly due to the standing waves created by injecting lots of photons into a box.

Microwaves are safe and do not make food less nutritious, healthy, etc. Anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant or lying to you for some reason.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: OVERKILL
Here's an interesting article about microwave ovens.

It turns out it was the Nazis who actually invented these ovens. They were used in their mobile support calling them the ?radiomissor?. These ovens were to be used for the invasion of Russia. By using electronic equipment for preparation of meals on a mass scale, the logistical problem of cooking fuels would have been eliminated, as well as the convenience of producing edible products in a greatly reduced time-factor.

That's not true, the magnetron (what a microwave oven is based on) was first designed in Berlin but was never adopted by the Nazis because of its frequency drift (the Germans being perfectionists). And it was developed for RADAR. The British adopted the magnetron for their radar systems.

The Nazis never used magnetrons (ie microwaves) to cook food. This application was discovered by the Americans and was not used to cook food until 1947. Your article FAILS at history.

 

[Flammable]

Originally posted by: Babbles

Originally posted by: Eli
Cooking food reduces nutritional content, period.

That's not necessarily accurate.

Cooking meats where the fat may be removed can, well in essence, lower the fat content of what one eats. Additionally, cooking items can, and will, denature proteins which can facilitate in digestion and absorption and therefore 'increase' the nutritional value. Even something like rice may increase the nutritional value, albeit primarily low GI calories via the starch, because the body may not necessarily be able to digest and absorb raw uncooked grains of rice.

heat = energy, that energy came from the meat therefore loss of energy which means less nutritious?

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Eeezee


That's not true, the magnetron (what a microwave oven is based on) was first designed in Berlin but was never adopted by the Nazis because of its frequency drift (the Germans being perfectionists). And it was developed for RADAR. The British adopted the magnetron for their radar systems.

The Nazis never used magnetrons (ie microwaves) to cook food. This application was discovered by the Americans and was not used to cook food until 1947. Your article FAILS at history.

They came from the need to find a use for radar technology after the war. All the companies had made big money during the war, but after it had a much smaller market.
The rumor is that one of the techs working on repairing a radar array had a chocolate bar in his pocket and noticed it had melted when he was done doing the repairs.

I remember the first microwave oven I ever saw. It was about 2 ft wide and about 2 ft tall.
Rotary mechanical timer, and the name on the front was Radar Range.
My grandmother used it to heat frozen bread, which of course turned to rubber .

found a pic of it.
http://bp1.blogger.com/_9_DXOL...very-old-microwave.jpg

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Flammable

Originally posted by: Babbles

Originally posted by: Eli
Cooking food reduces nutritional content, period.

That's not necessarily accurate.

Cooking meats where the fat may be removed can, well in essence, lower the fat content of what one eats. Additionally, cooking items can, and will, denature proteins which can facilitate in digestion and absorption and therefore 'increase' the nutritional value. Even something like rice may increase the nutritional value, albeit primarily low GI calories via the starch, because the body may not necessarily be able to digest and absorb raw uncooked grains of rice.

heat = energy, that energy came from the meat therefore loss of energy which means less nutritious?

The energy comes from the microwaves not the food.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Eeezee


That's not true, the magnetron (what a microwave oven is based on) was first designed in Berlin but was never adopted by the Nazis because of its frequency drift (the Germans being perfectionists). And it was developed for RADAR. The British adopted the magnetron for their radar systems.

The Nazis never used magnetrons (ie microwaves) to cook food. This application was discovered by the Americans and was not used to cook food until 1947. Your article FAILS at history.

They came from the need to find a use for radar technology after the war. All the companies had made big money during the war, but after it had a much smaller market.
The rumor is that one of the techs working on repairing a radar array had a chocolate bar in his pocket and noticed it had melted when he was done doing the repairs.

I remember the first microwave oven I ever saw. It was about 2 ft wide and about 2 ft tall.
Rotary mechanical timer, and the name on the front was Radar Range.
My grandmother used it to heat frozen bread, which of course turned to rubber .

Yes, precisely; I was referring to the fact that the Nazis weren't using microwaves to cook food during their Russian campaign. That's just false.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Eeezee

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Eeezee


That's not true, the magnetron (what a microwave oven is based on) was first designed in Berlin but was never adopted by the Nazis because of its frequency drift (the Germans being perfectionists). And it was developed for RADAR. The British adopted the magnetron for their radar systems.

The Nazis never used magnetrons (ie microwaves) to cook food. This application was discovered by the Americans and was not used to cook food until 1947. Your article FAILS at history.

They came from the need to find a use for radar technology after the war. All the companies had made big money during the war, but after it had a much smaller market.
The rumor is that one of the techs working on repairing a radar array had a chocolate bar in his pocket and noticed it had melted when he was done doing the repairs.

I remember the first microwave oven I ever saw. It was about 2 ft wide and about 2 ft tall.
Rotary mechanical timer, and the name on the front was Radar Range.
My grandmother used it to heat frozen bread, which of course turned to rubber .

Yes, precisely; I was referring to the fact that the Nazis weren't using microwaves to cook food during their Russian campaign. That's just false.

Yeah radar at the time was considered the highest of high tech, they certainly were not going to use it to cook with

The Nazi used klystron for radar , like the line, forget what it was called that blockaded an area of germany from aerial attacks.

I can't remember what it was called, anyone remember chime in.
It had some 30 + radar stations with telemetry that could zero in their attack planes on the allies planes. They had to go in with a ground assault to take out the stations.

 

[Baked]

It's safe if you keep your microwave oven clean and clean it on regular basis. Some people don't clean their microwave oven and it makes the toilet bowl at gas station look clean.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Born2bwire

Originally posted by: Eli
Guys, I'm not wrong about the fact that cooking food reduces nutritional content. That is a fact. I guess it depends on the specific definition of "nutritional content". I realize that cooking can make some things more accessible and digestible by our bodies, but the act of heating food destroys just about every vitamin, enzyme, phytonutrient, etc in the food.

That is why raw is always better when it comes to things like vegetables. Steaming vegetables is the best way of preserving nutritional content, but you still lose a lot even with such a "gentle" process.

Raw is not always better with vegetables. The cooking process unlocks much of the nutrients that our bodies cannot get at on its own. We aren't cows. You should take a look at what needs to be done to maize to make it nutritionally viable. When maize was first brought to Europe, it caused malnutrition because the Europeans did not know to treat maize with an alkali. Take a look at maize and pellagra.

If I just put a refrigerated apple in the MW and heat it to room temperature, am I destroying a significant amount of its food value, e.g. vitamins?

No. It is the heat itself that destroys these things, not the method of heating. Heating an apple(WTF?) to 80 degrees should be pretty much the same as letting it sit on the counter.

Heating it to 160 degrees, now that's another story.

 

[Modelworks]

After enough searching through wolfenstein links , I found the radar I was referring to in germany during WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kammhuber_Line