Microwave Ovens - Health and Safety

[kach22i]

Microwave Ovens are convenient, I used mine to thaw frozen meat, vegetables and to warm up milk. I use my teapot to heat water, just stays hotter longer that way.

However, last month the microwave broke, actually it started to arc. I researched the fix, and it looked pretty easy and cheap to do, a couple of parts. Probably much more life left in this +20 year old device.

I decided to see if I could live without a microwave oven as many of my friends don't even have them in their homes. Besides, I have a small kitchen and counter space where the unit sits is very limited - I could use the space.

Today I started doing research on the heath and safety of microwave ovens, and it's like reading about UFO's and other conspiracy theories.

Q1: What do we know for sure.

Q2: What don't we know for sure.

Q3: Do you have a microwave and use it often?

Sample article:

The Hidden Hazards of Microwave Cooking
by Anthony Wayne and Lawrence Newell
https://www.health-science.com/microwave_hazards.html

[dad911]

Foil hat and welding goggles, you'll be fine.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by dad911

Foil hat and welding goggles, you'll be fine.

The articles I've been reading say the food is changed.

The danger is not to the outside of your body, it's to the inside of your body.

[JD159]

Originally Posted by kach22i

The articles I've been reading say the food is changed.

The danger is not to the outside of your body, it's to the inside of your body.

It changed all right. Now it's hot

[dad911]

IMHO bigger problem is it's so easy to heat up a midnight snack, or cook excessive food for easy leftovers, it's likely to encourage bad habits.

1st microwave late 70's. My mother was so afraid of it, she would start it and move across the kitchen. Freaked when we would go check as it was on.

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by jd159

it changed all right. Now it's hot

lolololololololololololololol

[RKDinOKC]

The goggles and foil hat are minimum. If you should also wear tin foil lined cup or jock strap if you want to keep having kids. And, NO, it can't be used as a birth control device.

It is claimed the microware just heats the food by exciting the water molecules. But...If anyone has tried to cook things like meat, or warm bread it changes the texture, or noticed things heated in a microwave are way too hot, then cool down much quicker, you know that it does change at least the texture most foods.

Don't use my microwave very often. Usually it is just to warm something from the fridge to room temp, 10 to 15 seconds. Used it mostly for popcorn, but have stopped eating popcorn. If the ice cream from my freezer is to hard to scoop, 10 seconds in the microwave does make it scoopable. At least around the edges. But too many times and it will refreeze the air out making it into ice and not ice cream.

Anything I want to heat or unfreeze and cook I use a toaster oven. Doesn't take nearly as long to heat up and uses much less electricity than the oven. Found I especially preferred leftovers heated in an oven or toaster oven. It even revives stale take home restaurant tortilla chips.

[GH85Carrera]

Yea, microwaves are not something good to be directly exposed to. They are just electromagnetic radiation. Just light beams, just higher frequency so we can't see them. The make the molecules of water vibrate and that causes the food to get hot. Nothing more.

You can find lots of web sites claiming the earth is flat, the earth is hollow, or that the lizard people run the government and keep us to eat the babies.

There are people convinced that they are sensitive to all electromagnetic radiation of any sort. I guess they live deep underground and use only fire for light.

20 Of The Internet's Craziest Conspiracy Theories | ShortList Magazine

My favorite of the list in the link: Dinosaurs Helped Build The Pyramids!

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC

Don't use my microwave very often........

Same here, it's mostly a Band-Aid for poor planning ahead on my part.

The heating of leftovers are a good use, however in the past month or so I have found alternative methods.

For example left over rice.

I used to microwave it then top it with freshly stir fired or steamed meats and vegetables.

Now I pan fry raw chicken in my cast iron pan until cooked, then stir in broccoli and top with a little bit of rice spread around, then cover as it steams. The meat absorbs some of the moisture from the broccoli and the flavors mingle.

I actually end up with fewer things to wash.

On weekends I like to make poor man's cappuccino, I used to use an electric wand mixer to whip up the milk then microwave it, watching it rise in the cup, then do a pour-over.

Now I put milk in my heavy sauce pan, whisk it up under modest heat on the stove top and use that frothy mix in my pour-over cappuccino.

It looks more natural and tastes better/sweeter than the microwave method, and stays hotter longer without overheating the milk.

In short, for most things I have found alternatives to the microwave.

To thaw meat I no longer microwave risking cooking the edges an ugly gray color.

I simply lay out the meat ahead of time on a plate or bowl on top of my old fashion pilot light gas stove.

In a rush frozen chicken or shrimp in a bowl of lukewarm water, it takes just a little longer but no risk of ruining the meat.

Popcorn is coconut oil in my largest cast iron pan, locally grown non-GMO popcorn and a glass cover. Comes out great every time.

Reheating pizza is kind of like making popcorn, but without as much oil.

I think that I've talked myself into giving up my nuke machine.

It's always weirded me out that my wife stands right in front of it while it is on (like 6-inches away), I at least stand a few feet away and off to the side.

I also always used the shut off button prior to opening, my wife just flings open the door relying on the auto-shutoff feature.

Time to go pre-1980's in the kitchen, and why not? Everything else in my life has been going back in time.

[kach22i]

Kitchen is Done!


Microwave at skull height...................that's when you need a tin foil hat.


http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/brain-tumor/symptoms-causes/dxc-20117134

More common forms of radiation, such as electromagnetic fields from power lines and radiofrequency radiation from cellphones and microwave ovens, have not been proved to be linked to brain tumors.

Back to the inside, the reason some of my friends have provided - see below.

https://www.health-science.com/microwave_hazards.html

5. Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all micro-waved 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.

I might get a toaster over.

[RKDinOKC]

Quit eating popcorn because the bits of kernal kept getting stuck in my teeth and between my teeth and gums. Don't think cooking Jiffy Pop style with a pan on the stove would change that.

[sammyg2]

There's plenty of real things in the world to be worried about, no need to make up new stuff.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

There's plenty of real things in the world to be worried about, no need to make up new stuff.

I've always thought of the microwave like a hovercraft.

A hovercraft isn't going to replace a boat or a snowmobile, it's going to do things they cannot plus with some minor degree of success some of the things they also do.

Crossover.

My kitchen is too small to afford the small degree of crossover, and what ever a microwave does best I can live without.

That sums it up for me.

I can live without it, so that's what I am going to do.

I have to get a kitchen timer now, I used the microwave's timer all the time in baking.

[stomachmonkey]

It's high heat that changes the "texture" of food.

Carbs and proteins hydrolyze.

Same thing will happen in a conventional oven.

Easier to do in a microwave because of how they heat and most people use them wrong.

We stick stuff in and punch in some arbitrary time without thinking about what we are heating.

It would be the same as only using High on your burners or setting your oven to broil to bake a cake. Not gonna turn out that great.

When used properly with some forethought microwaves do just fine.

Still, I'll take a cast iron skillet and gas burner any day.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by kach22i

Kitchen is Done!


Microwave at skull height...................that's when you need a tin foil hat.


Brain tumor - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic


Back to the inside, the reason some of my friends have provided - see below.

https://www.health-science.com/microwave_hazards.html


I might get a toaster over.

You are the king of Google searches. Did you check that article out at all?

snopes.com: The Hidden Hazards Of Microwave Cooking

They quote no real research, and they never present any sort of credentials. There are tons of errors and they have an agenda. Just more silly internet fear mongers.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

You are the king of Google searches. Did you check that article out at all?

snopes.com: The Hidden Hazards Of Microwave Cooking

They quote no real research, and they never present any sort of credentials. There are tons of errors and they have an agenda. Just more silly internet fear mongers.

No, I did not see that MSG message board forum post before.

Did Snopes rate this article in it's typical way?

That article is typical of what one will find when doing a search, and like I said it reads like a UFO conspiracy article.

Do you condemn it, and why?

[GH85Carrera]

I just bogus BS they made up.

The microwaves make the water and fat vibrate. That makes heat and cooks the food. It is not some special bad ju-ju type of heat, just heat. It is called microwave radiation and I think the word radiation scares people. The light you see with is electromagnetic radiation and all sources of heat produce infrared radiation. Your body is making infrared radiation right now. So dang what?

They get into the fact that Russian solders were exposed to microwaves from the radar and it was bad pookie for them. Well Duh! Getting parts of your body cooked is bad stuff. They did not not cook food with microwaves and have the troops eat only that food. They partially cook the men. That does not need much research to figure out it is bad to have burns inside or out.

No one ever said microwave radiation is a health treatment and no spa on the planet has the microwave treatment. The same can be said of any form of cooking. It is not a good thing to do to people.

[RKDinOKC]

People like to get steamed (wet sauna), baked (dry sauna), and boiled (hot tub).

[sammyg2]

LOL, they use microwaves for communications, but I think that's only only for line of sight.
Top of one mountain to top of next.

[LEAKYSEALS951]