Unplug That Microwave!

Who doesn't have a microwave? They're in college dorms, kitchens, offices and bachelor pads all over the United States! We can't seem to live without them. We've lost the skill of reheating food in a conventional oven or stove top. We yell at them to hurry up as the seconds tick down. Really, we should be throwing them out the window!

It is pretty much common knowledge now that bottles of formula or breast milk should not be 'nuked. It even says so on formula cans. The general consensus is that it unevenly warms the fluid and can cause burns to baby. However, there's the added researched concern that "Heating the bottle in a microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In infant formulas, there may be a loss of some vitamins. In expressed breast milk, some protective properties may be destroyed." <Young Families, the Minnesota Extension Service of the University of Minnesota, 1989 radio announcement.>

If that happens to baby formula heated for mere seconds, what does it do to food overall?

In 1991, Norma Levitt was killed during a blood transfusion when the nurse warmed her blood in the microwave oven! The microwaves altered the blood and caused her body to be unable to accept it and use it! (Reference 1 and 2)

Hans Hertel and Bernard Blanc worked together to study the dangers of microwaves. In a controlled study, they found that those who consumed microwaved food had
Significant changes were discovered in the blood of the volunteers who consumed foods cooked in the microwave oven. These changes included a decrease in all hemoglobin values and cholesterol values, especially the HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values and ratio." (Reference 1 and 2) It also harmed the immune system by decreased white blood cells!

In short, microwaving denatures food. Microwaves work by heating food through friction in the cellular structure of the food....from the inside out rather than conventionally from the outside in. (Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon). This causes deformation within the molecular structures of the food, thus altering fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc etc etc. Some are rendered useless while others are altered and unable to be full assimilated or used within our bodies. Microwaving also breaks down the cells making them more susceptable to dangerous micro-organisms. (Reference 1)

The website: Global Healing Center features a very in-depth article on the dangers of microwave cooking. In it, they list these 10 reasons to toss out your microwave.

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.

Ok, so I admit, some of the research presented seems out-dated and some of the history seems more like propoganda to try to add fuel to the fire with emotion-based "facts," but we need to look at the research, the studies, the trials and tests.

Again, microwaves denature food and that denaturing process can cause any number of harmful effects on our bodies. Add that to the processed, chemical garbage present in most microwavable meals and you have double the trouble. And should you choose to use a microwave in a pinch, avoid using any and all plastics within at all costs, even "microwave safe" plastics. (Reference 3)

Reference 1
Reference 2

Reference 3