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More Bad News About
Microwave Oven Effects

From HSI - Jenny Thompson
hsiweb@agoramail.net
Health Sciences Institute e-Alert
1-28-3

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.


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