Is microwaving safe?

The study showed that microwaving removes 97 percent of the vegetable’s antioxidants, while boiling resulted in a 77 percent loss and steaming 11 percent.

by Ben Ta’ati —

The topic of cooking or heating food in the microwave oven comes up quite often with patients who are trying to lead natural, healthy lives. In Western living, we often feel we have very little time to purchase and prepare meals from scratch. Our fast-paced society has resulted in a variety of helpful conveniences: fast-food restaurants, carryouts, varieties of “food on the run” and microwave ovens.

Today, more than 90 percent of American homes have microwave ovens, making it perhaps the most successful appliance introduction of the 20th century. And while it has addressed one problem, namely time, it has created others, such as processed foods, additives, preservatives, packaging and ill health.

Rather than telling you whether to keep or throw away your microwave, I will share with you some of the research conducted to determine the effects of this convenient device.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s medical correspondent, reported the results of a study examining four different ways of cooking broccoli — high pressure boiling, conventional boiling, steaming and microwaving. The study showed that microwaving removes 97 percent of the vegetable’s antioxidants, while boiling resulted in a 77 percent loss and steaming 11 percent.

In the article “Microwaving Your Food Isn’t Safe,” Larry Cook presents an experiment you can do at home, by planting seeds in two pots and watering one pot with water that has been microwaved, the other with regular tap water. He concludes that the seeds receiving microwaved water will not sprout.

Dr. Hans Hertel was the first scientist to conceive and carry out a quality clinical study on the effects of microwaved nutrients on the blood and physiology of the human body. His small but well-controlled study showed the degenerative force produced in microwave ovens and the food processed in them.

The scientific conclusion of this study demonstrated that microwave cooking changed the nutrients in the food; as a result, changes took place in the participants’ blood that could cause deterioration in the human system. Also participating in Hertel’s scientific study were Dr. Bernard H. Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University Institute for Biochemistry.

Similarly, the Comparative Study of Food Prepared Conventionally and in the Microwave Oven, published by Raum & Zelt in 1992, posits: “A basic hypothesis of natural medicine states that the introduction into the human body of molecules and energies, to which it is not accustomed, is much more likely to cause harm than good. Microwaved food contains both molecules and energies not present in food cooked in the way humans have been cooking food since the discovery of fire.

“Microwave energy from the sun and other stars is direct current based. Artificially produced microwaves, including those in ovens, are produced from alternating current and force a billion or more polarity reversals per second in every food molecule they hit. Production of unnatural molecules is inevitable. Naturally occurring amino acids have been observed to undergo isomeric changes (changes in shape morphing) as well as transformation into toxic forms, under the impact of microwaves produced in ovens.”

The article also stated: “One short-term study found significant and disturbing changes in the blood of individuals consuming microwaved milk and vegetables. Eight volunteers ate various combinations of the same foods cooked different ways. All foods that were processed through the microwave ovens caused changes in the blood of the volunteers. Hemoglobin levels decreased and, overall, white cell levels and cholesterol levels increased. Lymphocytes decreased. Luminescent (light-emitting) bacteria were employed to detect energetic changes in the blood. Significant increases were found in the luminescence of these bacteria when exposed to blood serum obtained after the consumption of microwaved food.”

In Dr. Lita Lee’s book, Health Effects of Microwave Radiation: Microwave Ovens, and in the March and September 1991 issues of Earthletter, she states that every microwave oven leaks electromagnetic radiation, harms food, and converts substances cooked in it into dangerous organ-toxic and carcinogenic products. Further research summarized in this article reveals that microwave ovens are far more harmful than previously imagined.

Comparisons beteen conventional ovens and microwave ovens also indicate that since the microwave oven uses only radiation to transfer heat to foods, and the stove uses primarily conduction, the total heat energy that the microwaves can deliver is much higher than what the stove can deliver. Because our skin is opaque to infrared radiation, but transparent to microwaves, the microwave oven can deliver the heat directly to one’s internal organs, which is much more dangerous. This is why microwaves are shielded and stoves are not.

We should ask ourselves why we eat in the first place. Most likely, the answer will be that eating is to maintain health and give us energy. The next question, perhaps, is how a food whose nutrients have been destroyed can provide us with the sustenance and energy we require to live a long and healthy life. If microwaved water can stop plants from growing, think of what microwaved food can do to your body!

Ben Ta’ati, H.M.A., M.S.A., is a faculty member of the American Medical College of Homeopathy in Phoenix. www.MyArizonaHomeopath.com or 480-626-8485.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 27, Number 1, February/March 2008.