Paul wrote:
Regina Reichardt wrote:
Scientists of the CEBAS-CSIC Research Institute at the University of Murcia, Spain, found out that microwaves can destroy nutrients in foods, especially so-called antioxidants ... Steaming is by far the healthiest way to prepare vegetables – and microwaving the worst.
Is microwaved food unhealthy?Not so fast there. Much of that is just guesswork or false.
Straight Dope. There is no actual proof of most of that.
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Probably your friends are getting worked up over nothing, but this is one subject where you want to resist sweeping pronouncements. On its face, antimicrowave propaganda (you'll find loads of it on the Web) is none too persuasive--some of these people have yet to comprehend the crucial distinction between ionizing and nonionizing radiation. (Ionizing radiation is the nuclear, i.e., dangerous, kind, which includes X rays, gamma rays, etc; nonionizing is everything else, e.g., microwaves, not to mention light.) When you dig into the research, though, you realize the controversy isn't all hooey. On the contrary, what we've got here is one of the great coal-mine fires of science--an argument that, in this case, has been smoldering for 50 years without resolution. Unexpected recent developments, though, make me think we may get to the bottom of this pup yet.
As to plastics leaching chemicals, they'll do it regardless of whether you nuke them. The plastic bottle you drink out of? Leaching chemicals into the liquid. All of this stuff is basically propaganda scare tactics to make you nervous about stuff whoever's writing or reporting about it doesn't know anything more than we do. True scientific research is still trying to find out what and if there is any danger to plastics or microwaves causing diseases. Both plastics and microwaves have been around long enough that any kind of distinct or definite threat from normal use ought to have shown up in the general population by now.