June 2004 | Living Healthy
To Microwave or Not?
by Rebecca Ephraim
I am so confused. What’s the story on using microwave ovens? Are they annihilating the nutrients in the foods I microwave and wreaking havoc on my body? Or is that little box of energy a virtuous modern convenience? — Zapped in Chicago
In our crazy-busy lives, who wants to hear that microwaving could be a problem? Even the natural foods industry cranks out hundreds of products that can be microwaved. But, then again, those suppliers are simply meeting the demand for quick-cooked food that’s wholesome. Question is, is it still wholesome once we bombard the chow with an energy that violently agitates those little food molecules, making them rotate millions of times a second?
Critics think not and say this type of heating causes major damage to the food molecules, violently tearing them apart or forcefully deforming them.
“So what?” you might ask. “I shop at scratch-and-dent sales, I don’t mind a little bruised food.”
However, it’s more like a nutrient hemorrhage. Note that research on the subject is hard to come by, but a 2003 study by a Spanish research team, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, reported that microwaves virtually eliminate antioxidants, those little workhorses of the nutrition world, that protect our cells from damage by mopping up highly reactive chemicals called free radicals (the culprits behind cancer and other degenerative diseases). Better to steam, they found, and second to that, pressure cooking or boiling.
Another study (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 1998) found that vitamin B-12, an essential nutrient that protects against neurological problems and heart disease, is reduced by as much as 40 percent in food that’s been microwaved. An older study (1992) published in the medical journal Pediatrics and conducted by Stanford University researchers showed that microwaving human breast milk — even at low settings — can break down antibodies that fight disease. This, of course, could compromise infants’ immune systems making them vulnerable to disease. The authors wrote: “Microwaving appears to be contraindicated at high temperatures, and questions regarding its safety exist even at low temperatures.”
With all of us clamoring for more info on this subject, you’d think there’d be more research available. But Louis Slesin, Ph.D., editor of Microwave News, which covers health effects of products emitting non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation including microwave ovens, says there just isn’t much out there, “Clearly most of the money for this kind of [research] would come from the food industry and it’s not exactly clear that they are going to be eager to do this kind of work. Very few people who don’t have a stake in the outcome have done the work.”
Makes sense. Why would a microwave maker want us to know that their device is zapping the nutrients out of our food? That wouldn’t be a good marketing move. Hence, there is a dearth of credible science around this issue.
In the end, I try to limit my use of the microwave to warming-up leftovers (but do cook with it from time to time). To overcome the perceived nutrient deficits created by microwaves, I include a lot of raw and fermented foods (salads, juice drinks) in my diet. I take a high-quality multivitamin and mineral supplement along with other antioxidant formulas (lipoic acid and co-Q10, for instance). And, I use my toaster oven a lot.
Rebecca Ephraim is a registered dietitian and certified clinical nutritionist.
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