Dirty Thirty #21: Microwave Cooking

Before I tell you why microwave cooking is bad for you, I want to tell you about my experience of getting rid of my microwave. I was very reluctant. Yes, I had read and understood the articles I post and cite below. I even know how much better food tastes when you don't use a microwave. I thought I would "transition" out of using the microwave, but I soon realized that as long as the microwave was on my counter I would use it. So, one day, I just unplugged it and put it in the closet.


I was given a very generous Target gift card for the holidays and decided to spend some of it on this counter-top convection/toaster oven, and I never looked back. I started using this more than my regular oven when I'm cooking for myself. This thing is pretty big. I've actually cooked a half a fillet of salmon in it; so, you could easily cook for a family of four without your regular oven heating up your house. Reheating is a breeze, and, honestly, it doesn't take much longer than the microwave, anyway. And the food tastes a thousand times better. Heating soups on the stove, I avoid those hot and cold "pockets" that microwaving produces. I can tell you I've never been happier in my kitchen. The best part is that it keeps me from buying a frozen meal at the grocery store "just this once." By that alone, I started eating healthier right away.

Top Ten Reasons Not to Use Your Microwave Oven
(based on Swiss, Russian and German clinical studies; taken from "The Hidden Hazards of Microwave Cooking" by Anthony Wayne and Lawrence Newell)

1. Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long-term, permanent brain damage by "shorting out" electrical impulses in the brain (depolarizing or demagnetizing the brain tissue).
2. The human body cannot metabolize the unknown by-products created in microwaved food.
3. Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.
4. The effects of microwaved food by-products are residual (long-term and permanent) within the human body.
5. Minerals, vitamins and nutrients of all microwaved food are reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the human body absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down.
6. The minerals in vegetables are altered into carcinogenic free-radicals when cooked in a microwave oven.
7. Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths. This has been a primary contributor to the rapidly increased rate of colon cancer in the United States.
8. The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cancerous cells to increase in human blood.
9. Continual ingestion of microwaved food causes immune system deficiencies through lymph gland and blood serum alterations.
10. Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability and decrease of intelligence.

The article cited above is pretty long. I suggest you read that along with "Microwave Ovens Destroy the Nutritional Value of Your Food" by Mike Adams and "Does Plastic in Microwave Pose Health Problems?" which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on October 12, 1998. After reading these, take time to process the information and come to your own conclusions regarding microwave use in your home.