health & sanity

As a young girl I was always told to not stand infront of my microwave because it causes cancer. Recently I read in a book “natural cures THEY don’t want you to know about” that mincrowaving food actually changed the chemical structure of the food making it more unhealthy for you. Lately I’ve been digging into this fabulous book called “Let Them Eat Flax” by Dr. Joe Schwarcz and it’s a book I would highly recommend. I’m not one of those naturalists that go nuts and think that everything unnatural is bad for you. I’m learning in this book that there’s a lot of things that naturalists think are bad for you that are not. Dr. Joe Schwarcz is a chemist and he goes into the actual studies done on things and the real chemisty and science behind it all. ANYWAY, back to microwaves. A microwave works by agitating molecules in the food so they create friction and heat the food up. Most things need to contain a certain amount of water to heat up which is fine because most food contains plenty of water. Microwaves do not breack chemical bonds therefore it cannot cause cancer nor can a microwave do anymore damage to your food than other means of cooking. Heating food does change the chemicals but that happens with any means of cooking, otherwise things wouldn’t cook!! Spanish researchers caused a major uproar because they wanted to see which method of cooking would yeild the healthiest cooked broccoli. They were mainly interested in the loss of flavonoids (which are helpful with cancer prevention). They noted a 97 percent decline in flavonoids when microwaving the broccoli, while there were hardly any losses in steaming the broccoli. Now that sounds scary right? It looks like the microwaves are killing our flavonoids but really, the researchers just didn’t know how to cook broccoli. They covered them entirely with water and heated them for FIVE MINUTES on high!! Of course that’s going to result in overcooked, squishy broccoli!! The only risks associated with microwaves are in accidents that happen with the hot food. DONT microwave a whole egg, it will explode in your face and be careful with liquids as they can get super hot without boiling so it’s good to make sure they’ve come to a full boil before you take them out of the microwave so you know the steam inside has been let off. No exploding coffee for me. Anyway, there, now you know the truth behind microwaves. I, for one, am very relieved as I was feeling guilty for microwaving my son’s food all the time after reading how it chemically alters the food. Looks like I still am a good mom.

One more thing to note. There are actually more carcenogens (heterocyclic aromatic amines) found in meat that has been grilled, fried, or broiled as opposed to microwaved. One thing I’d like to know though is why bread gets tough in the microwave. Also when actually cooking meat in the microwave it tends to get rubbery, perhaps I’ll get my mom to ask Dr Schwarcz next time she goes to one of his lectures. BUY THE BOOK!