It is estimated that 90% of all Americans have a microwave in their home.  Unfortunately, this means that roughly 284 million people are cooking their food by destroying it.  That’s right: DESTROYING.  That’s because, those magical boxes of radar cooking technology not only make your food taste bad, but evidence shows that in many cases, they deplete the nutritional value of your food to next to nothing.  At this point, you might be shocked by this or you might even believe that I’m just spewing unfounded bad news.  I was the same way.  NO WAY was I going to give up my microwave and the simplicity it afforded me when it came to cooking.  That was until, intrigued by the surging number of people telling me how bad they were, I took the time to research this  myself.  What I found, did not shock me as much as it changed me and my cooking habits.  

Research, Research, Research

When I began researching the topic I quickly found that there are a lot of opinions out there, which made it difficult to sort the fact from the fiction, but amidst all the chaos, I did find a number of studies and research articles that all touched on these disturbing finds regarding microwaves:

•  Three recent studies of historical food composition have shown 5-40% declines in some of the minerals in fresh produce, and another study found a similar decline in our protein sources.
•  A 1999 Scandinavian study of the cooking of asparagus spears found that microwaving caused a reduction in vitamins.
• In a study of garlic, as little as 60 seconds of microwave heating was enough to inactivate its allinase, garlic’s principle active ingredient against cancer.
• A study published in the November 2003 issue of The Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture found that broccoli “zapped” in the microwave with a little water lost up to 97%of its beneficial antioxidants. By comparison, steamed broccoli lost 11% or fewer of its antioxidants. There were also reductions in phenolic compounds and glucosinolates, but mineral levels remained intact.
• A recent Australian study showed that microwaves cause a higher degree of “protein unfolding” than conventional heating.
• Microwaving can destroy the essential disease-fighting agents in breast milk that offer protection for your baby. In 1992, Quan found that microwaved breast milk lost lysozyme activity, antibodies, and fostered the growth of more potentially pathogenic bacteria.

Could something so widely used really be so bad for its intended purpose of cooking food?

I’m not a scientist so I honestly couldn’t say for sure, but the stuff I was finding certainly didn’t make me feel good about using it.  So, to be sure, I experimented for a week: Every meal I made would be made in 2 halves with one half getting the microwave treatment and the other getting cooked the old fashioned stove and oven way.  During that week, I routinely found that not only did my food taste better off the stove or from the oven, but it LOOKED better.  Literally, every meal I cooked, the microwave’s edition of it looked like it was 90 years older than the same dish cooked on the stove.  Between the bad looks and the horrible taste, I was convinced that my food was better and healthier when it wasn’t nuked.  So I returned to google to see if I could find more evidence, and I did in the form of a water study in which plants were watered with either microwaved water or fresh water.  The results: Nothing grew well in the microwaved water.

They simply weren’t getting enough nutrients, and I thought to myself, “If plants can’t live on something cooked in a microwave, why should I believe I can?” So the next day, I got rid of my microwave, and it’s been tasty, delicious, healthy eating ever since.  Not only does microwaving take away from a food’s nutrtional value and make it taste bad, it also ruins a healthy diet by cooking up food for you that is actually empty.

So switch over to some tastier, healthier raw options like fresh fruits and vegetables and foods cooked using steam or low heat.  Don’t sacrifice your health for convencience. Remember, It’s your life, your health, and your choice.

References:

Bauman, Ed. Ph.D

Davis D R. (February 1, 2009). Declining fruit and vegetable nutrient composition: What is the evidence? American Society of Horticultural Science.

George D F, Bilek M M, and McKenzie D R. Non-thermal effects in the microwave induced unfolding of proteins observed by chaperone binding. Bioelectromagnetics 2008 May;29(4). 324-330.

Kidmose U and Kaack K. Acta. Agriculturae Scandinavica B1999:49(2).110-117.

Vallejo F, Tomas-Barberan F A, and Garcia-Viguera C. Phenolic compound contents in edible parts of broccoli inflorescences after domestic cooking. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture (15 Oct)