Is Microwave Cooking Safe?

Is cooking food in our microwave ovens safe? Well, I'd hoped so since I've been consuming food cooked in a microwave since I was a youngster. When I was a kid and our family got our first microwave oven, it was an exciting moment in the technological advancement in our home. It made cooking and heating things up faster and easier than ever. Back then, the microwave was a big, heavy monster compared to the space-efficient microwave ovens of today.

I've had the ease of microwave cooking for many years now. One afternoon there was a knock at my door and much to my distaste there stood a vacuum cleaner salesman. She portrayed the likeness of a 70's hippy chic and because she seemed friendly enough, I let her in. She gave her presentation and I did not buy anything as usual. During our visit she noted my microwave oven in the kitchen. She claimed that she did not and would not ever use one of them because of their health risks.

This got me thinking about how safe it was to cook in my microwave. Odd, I thought, that I had not really thought about it before considering this appliance uses microwave radiation. I really just had enjoyed the convenience of fast and easy cooking. After further exploration into the microwave oven, I now have to re-evaluate whether or not I want to continue to use it, cut back on its use, or toss the thing out for good.

Microwaves cook things from the inside out. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has stated that "foods cooked in a microwave oven may keep more of their vitamins and minerals, because microwave ovens can cook more quickly and without adding water." A Spanish study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture in 2003 tells another story. This study found that microwave cooking is the worst way to preserve even one key nutrient in vegetables. Veggies lose anywhere from 60% - 90% of their nutrients.

Re-heating breast milk in the microwave, even on low, can destroy some very important disease-fighting capabilities. Microwaves destroy half of the vitamin B-12 in dairy foods and meat in as little as six minutes.

In the 1950s, in Russia, researchers found serious problems with those who ate microwaved foods. These complications included stomach and intestinal cancers, a gradual breakdown of the digestive and excretory systems, and a degeneration of peripheral cellular tissues. This research also showed that heating milk and cereal grains in the microwave turned some of their amino acids into carcinogens. Thawing frozen fruits turned their glucoside into carcinogenic substances.

As a result of this research, the Soviets banned the use of microwaves in 1976. They issued an international warning on the hazards. The ban was over-turned and the rest of the world seems to not have heeded the warning at all.

In 1991, an article that appeared in a Swiss environmental magazine titled Journal Franz Weber stated "the consumption of food cooked in microwave ovens had cancerous effects on the blood..." In 1992, the Swiss Association of Dealers for Electro-apparatuses for Households and Industry, known as FEA forced Swiss courts to issue a gag order against the doctors responsible for the research and article named above.

There are other potential problems when microwave cooking. Radiation can leak due to damaged door seals. Uneven cooking leaves cold spots in which bacteria can thrive. Chemicals can be released from plastic containers or food wrap.

Included in German and Russian findings was that consuming microwaved foods has been noted to cause a breakdown of the human life-energy field. Degeneration and circuit breakdowns within the front portion of the brain have been discovered. This is the part of the brain where thought and higher functions reside. Also experienced are a loss of balance and long term loss of vital energy.

As with anything that is potentially hazardous to the people, if it is not in the best interest of the companies that fund the research, it's not likely that warnings will be posted emphatically to consumers.

In the event everyone learns of these findings, there are still many who will view these warnings as simply the rants of alarmists. After careful consideration, I believe I will cook without the microwave oven. It seems that pleasant vacuum salesman was right after all.