What Does the Microwave Really Do to Your Food?

Happy New Year. This is the year 2010. I have to admit, I never thought this world would make it, i'm glad it has. Since we are all truly blessed to make it this far, let's focus on surviving.

Within the last 5 decades, medical and scientific technology has soared. The advantages to this highly expanding technology far outweighs the disadvantages. With that said, let's discuss some of the disadvantages. While technology has soared within the last 5 decades, so has cancer. Why is this? For years there has been a debate concerning the link between radiation exposure and cancer. No one seems to have a definite answer. In 2010, let's not depend on scientist, doctors, or big corporations to inform us of common sense issues. In this article, I will focus on an appliance, just about everyone uses, the microwave.

In the United States, 90% of homes own and actively use the microwave. Most people use it without considering what it's doing to their food. More than not, we come home from work, hungry, we're in a rush to feed ourselves and our children, so we microwave. When we have leftovers, we microwave. To warm our coffee, at work, we microwave. To warm fast food, we microwave. What about popcorn, does anyone even own a popcorn maker? Let's learn a little more about this product we commonly use.

The microwave is covered under the Radiation Safety Standard, by the Food and Drug Administration. It's limit of radiation is 5 milliwatts at 2 inches from the oven. As with most types of radiation, the farther away you are, the less radiation you receive. 5 milliwatts is a low number which seems o.k., but long term effects of low dose radiation are not known. In other words: If the Jones Family uses the microwave once a day for 20 years, no one can tell us if their use will cause them to have cancer. Although, we know that high doses of radiation does cause cancer. Something about that doesn't seem accurate. Let's take a closer look at how this low dose of radiation cooks our food.

The microwave generates non-ionizing radiation. Non-ionizing radiation is radiation that doesn't carry enough energy to ionize atoms or molecules, similar to radio waves. When we place our food in the microwave, these waves causes friction, from the water molecules in the food, to create heat. In other words, the radiation interacts with the cellular structure of food to cook it. Since it changes the cellular structure, it's cooked from the inside outwards. Normally, in a conventional oven, our food is cooked from outside inward.

Studies show that microwaving vegetables destroys 97% of its nutritional value. Microwaves convert Vitamin B-12 from active to inactive, 30-40% is unusable. What's the point in eating healthy when the microwave robs us of the foods nutritional value? When we eat food without nutritional value, our immune system decreases. When our immune system decreases, our risk for illness increases.

In 1991, a female patient died after receiving a blood transfusion because the nurse warmed the blood in the microwave. As an R.N., typically you warm blood under warm water but if the microwave is safe to warm food, why would it damage the blood, thereby killing the patient?

Research shows that warming a baby's bottle, in the microwave, causes changes in the infants milk and loss of vitamins. Why is it safe for us to microwave food but not safe to warm an infant's bottle? If the microwave changes the infants milk, wouldn't it change our food, also?

In 1976, Russia banned the use of the microwave. A study was done, at the Radio Technology, in Klinsk, Byelorussia, which discovered that the use of the microwave created a cancer causing agent (d-Nitrosodithanolamine) in our food. Studies further showed that microwave use decreased our immune system, which protects against cancer and depletes vitamins b, c, and e, from our food.

The microwave is a convenient appliance but is it really worth possible illness. In 2010, let's take control of our future, one step at a time. Why not start with staying healthy.