Posts: 892
From: California
Registered: May 2004

posted November 11, 2004 10:27 PM         

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More Bad News About
Microwave Oven Effects
From HSI - Jenny Thompson
hsiweb@agoramail.net
Health Sciences Institute e-Alert
1-28-3

They're convenient, they're fast, but are microwave ovens really safe?

This is a frequent question we get on the HSI Forum and through e-mails, such as this one from a member named Jasmine, who asks:

"I do quite a bit of microwave cooking, but would like to know how that affects the food value, especially in vegetables. Does the excessive heat destroy the vitamin content or what? Nobody I've asked seems to know and I haven't been able to find any reference to it in numerous health magazines and books I've looked through."

To address the question of how microwaving affects nutrition, I turned Jasmine's questions over to HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D.

According to Dr. Spreen...

There are very few studies on microwave cooking and food quality. There's a reason for that, which I'll get to in a second. What studies exist are all bad news for microwaving - they universally describe some type of damage. One study showed breakdown of vitamin B-12 to inactive degradation products in microwaved foods. The magazine "Health & Healing Wisdom" reports that Russian research concerning neurological effects of altered magnetic states of microwaved foods caused the Russian government to outlaw all food microwave apparatus in 1976 (I don't know if that ban still exists). Another study showed depletion of antibodies and breakdown of enzymes when breast milk is microwaved.

There's also a problem with release of potentially toxic molecules into the food from packaging designed to help brown food during microwaving. This includes items such as pizza, French fries, waffles, popcorn and breaded fish - and these findings were determined by the FDA!

The most controlled (and scary) research was almost stopped from anyone knowing about it before being published. Two Swiss researchers sequestered subjects under close scrutiny and blood tested them after randomly eating food that was either microwaved or conventionally cooked. They found all sorts of potentially nasty stuff: (1) blood hemoglobin levels decreased significantly after ingesting microwaved foods, both total levels and the amount contained in each red blood cell; (2) White blood cell levels tended to increase for no other reason than foods were microwaved; (3) microwaves altered protein molecules; (4) LDL cholesterol (the 'bad' type) increased relative to HDL cholesterol (the 'good' type).

The problem was, they were immediately sued by the "Swiss Association of Dealers for Electroapparatuses for Households and Industry," and one of the authors was convicted by the Swiss Federal Court of "interfering with commerce." The fine was the equivalent of $65,000. So, the message is you think twice before stepping on too many big-money toes.

However you slice it, there appears to be a problem with those high frequency, alternating current (meaning abnormal for the human system) electromagnetic waves...but it's sure an easy way to fix popcorn!

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Posts: 197
From: Colorado, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted November 18, 2004 08:17 PM         

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Yikes! That certainly is some food for thought. What a shame - I love popcorn!

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Posts: 2795
From: The Boundless
Registered: Mar 2003

posted November 19, 2004 09:04 AM         

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I'll have to see if I can find an article I have about using plastic in the microwave, which causes even more harmful effects. Something to do with the way plastic reacts in the microwave, giving off toxins...

Johnny, air-popped popcorn is soooo much more delicious! And those commercial microwave brands are also laden with the dreaded hydrogenated oils...

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Posts: 197
From: Colorado, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted November 19, 2004 11:18 AM         

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Yep, most of the time I cook my popcorn on the stove, but that microwave stuff is still the best...

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Posts: 275
From: NYC
Registered: Oct 2004

posted November 19, 2004 11:22 AM         

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This sux bigtime!

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Posts: 202
From: MD, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted December 19, 2004 02:00 PM         

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Hi,
I was wondering those anyway have any more information in regards to microwaves. The funny thing I could always tell if my Mom heated up the food in the microwaved or had used the stove. At work the people on my staff they already know if they offer me any tea never to put the water in the microwaves I can always tell the difference. I think if you don't use the microwave for a few months you actually tell the difference. I think that any type of food or drink that goes thru the microwave taste dead.

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Posts: 840
From: North Carolina
Registered: Aug 2003

posted December 27, 2004 04:53 PM         

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Just wanted to keep this from getting lost.
Microwaves are such a busy or plain lazy person's downfall in the kitchen. My parents didn't have a microwave until I reached highschool. They both worked long days but still we somehow found a way to make home cooked meals everyday. It was usually a group effort but that's really more of a plus than a minus if you think about how hard it is for some families to find "quality" time to spend together. Our quality time was dinner time.
Then came the microwave. Forget about home cooked meals everyday. Large batches of food cooked over the weekend that would hopefully last as microwaveable meals until the middle of the week, then make do with some microwaveable entrees or mac n cheese. Yuck. I hated it.
Now, my hubby and I have one in our apartment (it came equipped) and it's so easy to fall into the same "just pop something in the microwave" mentality when you're tired or don't have enough time, you tell yourself, to cook. It really makes me mad because I enjoy cooking/preparing food.
We're moving and our new place doesn't have a microwave and we don't intend to buy one. Our meals should be a lot tastier and healthier in a couple of weeks.
Reading this article got me thinking about something. I went to the doctor recently to get a check up for my pregnancy, etc. and the results from my bloodwork came back with a slightly high count of red blood cells. But there's nothing "wrong" with me otherwise. The doctor didn't know how to explain/account for it but said that they'd run some more blood work next time and, if the results are the same, then they're going to have to look deeper into it. She was really perplexed by it. Apparantly pregnant women have a slightly lower than normal red blood cell count. Perhaps our microwave use is part of the problem. Hmmm.

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Posts: 20174
From: Columbus, GA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted January 01, 2005 11:03 AM         

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Interesting.

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"Never mentally imagine for another that which you would not want to experience for yourself, since the mental image you send out inevitably comes back to you." Rebecca Clark

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Posts: 3979
From: the stars
Registered: Jun 2004

posted January 02, 2005 05:58 PM         

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Here's a thread I started awhile back, with some good links on this subject. Kill your Microwave. http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/003236.html

Also:
Ten Reasons to Throw out your Microwave Oven

From the conclusions of the Swiss, Russian and German scientific clinical studies, we can no longer ignore the microwave oven sitting in our kitchens. Based on this research, we will conclude this article with the following:

1). Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term - permanent - brain damage by "shorting out" electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue].

2). The human body cannot metabolize [break down] 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, permanent] within the human body.

5). Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food is 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 cancerous free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens.

7). Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths [tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increased rate of colon cancer in America.

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 a decrease of intelligence.

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