- Dear Reader,
-
- They're convenient, they're fast, but are microwave ovens
really safe?
-
- This is a frequent question we get on the HSI Forum and
through e-mails, such as this one from a member named Jasmine, who asks:
-
- "I do quite a bit of microwave cooking, but would
like to know how that affects the food value, especially in vegetables.
Does the excessive heat destroy the vitamin content or what? Nobody I've
asked seems to know and I haven't been able to find any reference to it
in numerous health magazines and books I've looked through."
-
- To address the question of how microwaving affects nutrition,
I turned Jasmine's questions over to HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D.
-
- According to Dr. Spreen...
-
- There are very few studies on microwave cooking and food
quality. There's a reason for that, which I'll get to in a second. What
studies exist are all bad news for microwaving - they universally describe
some type of damage. One study showed breakdown of vitamin B-12 to inactive
degradation products in microwaved foods. The magazine "Health &
Healing Wisdom" reports that Russian research concerning neurological
effects of altered magnetic states of microwaved foods caused the Russian
government to outlaw all food microwave apparatus in 1976 (I don't know
if that ban still exists). Another study showed depletion of antibodies
and breakdown of enzymes when breast milk is microwaved.
-
- There's also a problem with release of potentially toxic
molecules into the food from packaging designed to help brown food during
microwaving. This includes items such as pizza, French fries, waffles,
popcorn and breaded fish - and these findings were determined by the FDA!
-
- The most controlled (and scary) research was almost stopped
from anyone knowing about it before being published. Two Swiss researchers
sequestered subjects under close scrutiny and blood tested them after randomly
eating food that was either microwaved or conventionally cooked. They found
all sorts of potentially nasty stuff: (1) blood hemoglobin levels decreased
significantly after ingesting microwaved foods, both total levels and the
amount contained in each red blood cell; (2) White blood cell levels tended
to increase for no other reason than foods were microwaved; (3) microwaves
altered protein molecules; (4) LDL cholesterol (the 'bad' type) increased
relative to HDL cholesterol (the 'good' type).
-
- The problem was, they were immediately sued by the "Swiss
Association of Dealers for Electroapparatuses for Households and Industry,"
and one of the authors was convicted by the Swiss Federal Court of "interfering
with commerce." The fine was the equivalent of $65,000. So, the message
is you think twice before stepping on too many big-money toes.
-
- However you slice it, there appears to be a problem with
those high frequency, alternating current (meaning abnormal for the human
system) electromagnetic waves...but it's sure an easy way to fix popcorn!
-
- Good Health, Allan Spreen, M.D.
|
