What is exactly wrong with microwaving??

[e&tsmom]

So, we have been a chemical- plastic free, organic household for a while. DH is almost always on board with any changes (or, as I like to say, improvements) I make to our daily living style/habits. I would like to stop using the mocrowave but I have not been able to find really concrete reasons for it. I read that it disrupts the molecular make up of food, but why s that bad. I mean, it sounds bad but what about that makes it bad, ya know? I know I'm gonna get resistance on this and i need some back up. And, if I have small, one-person meals in corning ware, could I use the convection oven to reheat? I would hate to use the big-ol-oven for my lunch, ya know? Thoughts?

[BerryMac]

Hi e&tsmom,
I too am struggling to get rid of our microwave. It's not really my husband who has a problem with eliminating it from our house; it's me! I know that it is bad for us to use but I just can't seem to stop!

From the research I've done (sorry no documentation), I have learned it affects the nutrition of the food in a negative manner. Plus the issue of disturbing the molecules, causing the food to become cancerous (possibly) is problematic.

This has given me a renewed interest in tossing the thing!

Maybe I will store it in our basement for a month and see...if I don't miss it, and can remember to thaw dinner items before needing them, it won't seem as such as shock to just toss it.

[FairyRae]

This article is why I stopped using a microwave. Not sure how accurate/valid it is, but it was enough to get me to let it go...

HTH!

[lil_earthmomma]

Originally Posted by BerryMac

Hi e&tsmom,
I too am struggling to get rid of our microwave. It's not really my husband who has a problem with eliminating it from our house; it's me! I know that it is bad for us to use but I just can't seem to stop!

From the research I've done (sorry no documentation), I have learned it affects the nutrition of the food in a negative manner. Plus the issue of disturbing the molecules, causing the food to become cancerous (possibly) is problematic.

This has given me a renewed interest in tossing the thing!

Maybe I will store it in our basement for a month and see...if I don't miss it, and can remember to thaw dinner items before needing them, it won't seem as such as shock to just toss it.

For quicker thawing, toss the frozen food into your sink full of hot water!

[prescottchels]

Originally Posted by lil_earthmomma

For quicker thawing, toss the frozen food into your sink full of hot water!

Careful you don't parboil your food though... ask me how I know lol

I work in a professional kitchen pt over the summers and the health dept version of thawing food entails putting the food, still in it's packaging, in a dish tub in the sink and letting the faucet run (slowly-not full blast) over it w/cold or lukewarm water til it's thawed or at least thawed enough to do what you want w/it. It works pretty good especially if you start the thawing process while you're prepping your other food for cooking, or whatever.

Good Luck giving up the nukers! I did many years ago and haven't looked back since!
One tip... if you buy ground meat and freeze it, shape it into burger patties or meatballs or cook the casserole, before freezing and then you can just use it straight out of the freezer w/o thawing!!

I love the visuals of Dr. Masaru Emoto's water crystal work. On this page he has a picture of a water crystal after it was microwaved and then one the words love & gratitude were attached too. So if you can't bear the thought of getting rid of the microwave at least use Love & Gratitude on everything that goes in there! Check it out!
http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/...0712.html#1219, go to Dec 19, 2007 if it doesn't land you there immediately.

[texaspeach]

Originally Posted by lil_earthmomma

For quicker thawing, toss the frozen food into your sink full of hot water!

even though it seems counter intuitive, cold water works better. Cold RUNNING water works best of all

[reducereuserecycle]

i don't like the radiation that comes from the microwave when you use it...i don't like the taste of microaved foods.

things like melting butter, for example, can so easily be done stovetop.

i haven't owned a microwave for 3 years and don't miss it---ever.

it is nice to have the extra counter space.

by the way....it keeps things so much more natural and exciting...ex. stovetop popcorn...if i owned a microwave i would have never experimented with all the different types of stovetop popcorn (i've tried like 5 varieties of amish popping corn, coconut oil, my own concoction of peanut and safflower oil...

[Jyotsna]

Just wanted to tell you that I stopped using a microwave back in 2005, and the way this has affected my family in a positive direction is...that I no longer use industrial prepared meals for my family.

We are cooking everything now, : except for occassional frozen pizzas and such, which need to be cooked in the oven, not microwave oven.

I'm very happy to no longer use it. I do have it in my garage (not hooked up) in case we need it for some reason. It's brand new...wish I hadn't bought it.

[LionessMom]

i fought with DH when he brought home a microwave. i hate it, but if i try to reheat broccoli on the stove it gets all mushy. so there are some (very few) things i use it for.

[GuavaGirl]

Yeah, I've wondered this too! I know I've heard it's bad for various reasons, but when I tell DH he always says that it's impossible, and if you understood the science behind how a microwave works, you'd understand that there's nothing wrong with it and, those claims can't be true, and that microwaves do not produce radiation.

I'm more right brained artsy, and he's more left brained science,.....so I really don't know what to think.

If there were any credible sources, I'd definitely be interested.

[funkymamajoy]

From what I understand, microwaving works by exciting the water molecules in food. The convection oven works by exciting air molecules (cooking with hot air).

Heat is a form of radiation. When you break down cooking to the pure physics of it, it does radiate food and change its molecular structure in a delicious way.

I'm not afraid of the microwave. I just like actual cooking better.

[bright_eyes]

I would love to get rid of my microwave but struggle with doing so because I can't figure out how to heat some things up without it. For example, I make a big pot of steel cut oats and then we reheat it for the next few days for breakfast. How would I eat it up without my microwave? I have a toaster oven that just dries it out and putting it in a pot on the stove is hard because all the liquid has been cooked out and it just sticks to the pot. I've tried adding a bit of water and that helps a little.

Also, we eat leftovers almost every day for lunch. Somethings are pretty easy to stick in a frying pan and heat up, but others are extremely hard. If it's a one dish meal, it's better, but if it's something where I don't want everything mixed up, then I have to use separate pots for each thing, and that is a pain.

Those of you without microwaves, how do you reheat food? Do you not do leftovers very often?

[noobmom]

Originally Posted by e&tsmom

I read that it disrupts the molecular make up of food, but why s that bad. I mean, it sounds bad but what about that makes it bad, ya know?

Cooking food disrupts the molecular make up food, period. That's why cakes rise and raw eggs turn solid when you boil them. Even freezing and drying changes food. You know that delicious crust that forms on your food when you sear or grill it? Known to be carcinogenic*. If you want to get rid of your microwave, I would make the argument based on something other than worry about the microwave affecting the food. Jyotsna's experience is a great example.

*Citations:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/f...ocyclic-amines
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/phs69.html

[ScarletBegonias]

microwaves work by forcing food molecules to change their polarity so quickly it creates heat. in the process, the molecules mutate from the forced polarity switching. put in broccoli and out comes, um, i'm not sure what it is now.

i wish i could find the study, but about 5 years ago i read a study that was double blind. they took food and served it raw, cooked/boiled and microwaved. they drew blood from the subjects (human subjects) and found the blood from microwaved food consumers to have abnormally high white blood cell levels. the level found in leukemia patients. plainly stated, microwaves make your food cancerous.

even formula companies say not to heat their milk in microwaves, not just because of the dangerous hot pockets, but because even they know it alters the nutritional content of their formula.

we do a lot of one pot meals and not many leftovers. dh doesn't like them. as far as oatmeal, what about a small crockpot? i've heard a lot of families do this for steel cut oats.

[dogmom327]

Supposedly if you put a wet sponge in a microwave for 60 seconds it kills like 99% of the germs. I'd hate to think what it does to the nutrients in my food!

[BerryMac]

Hi bright eyes,
I put my microwave into the basement last week and have been using the stove to reheat things.
I cook oatmeal every day for breakfast (after soaking it all night). I simply put it into a pot with some water and heat it on me-low. It's fine.
As for everything else, I heat coffee on the stove, too. Leftovers, I put into a cast iron pan, on low, with a lid sometimes, and sometimes with water, depending on what it is I'm reheating.
I have had no problems with anything.

I'll never get my microwave out of the basement.

[MRJmama]

I don't use the microwave very often and when we moved across the country I even sold mine. The house we bought had one built in so we do still have one.

I just wanted to share, when I said I wasn't buying a new one my mom had a fit saying that she needed one so I had to have one in my home

[funkymamajoy]

Originally Posted by bright_eyes

Those of you without microwaves, how do you reheat food? Do you not do leftovers very often?

With an 8 person household (well 7 who eat food) and making most of my grandmother's meal, we don't have a lot of leftovers.

But I reheat most things on the stove, sometimes I have to add water but I have do that if I throw it in the microwave anyway.

[catnip]

Originally Posted by noobmom

Cooking food disrupts the molecular make up food, period. That's why cakes rise and raw eggs turn solid when you boil them. Even freezing and drying changes food. You know that delicious crust that forms on your food when you sear or grill it? Known to be carcinogenic*. If you want to get rid of your microwave, I would make the argument based on something other than worry about the microwave affecting the food. Jyotsna's experience is a great example.

*Citations:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/f...ocyclic-amines
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/phs69.html

I agree with this. I also got rid of my microwave because it makes me be more intentional about my food, and it has steered me away from packaged things.

[avendesora]

Originally Posted by dogmom327

Supposedly if you put a wet sponge in a microwave for 60 seconds it kills like 99% of the germs. I'd hate to think what it does to the nutrients in my food!

A pot of boiling water would do the same thing. Yet we're generally unconcerned about what a pot of boiling water would do to our food.