My first taste into the world of microwave safety began back in 6th grade with my Home Economics teacher -- a quirky lady with wild hair like Ralphie's mother from A Christmas Story. She demonstrated in front of the class that microwaves were perfectly save by sitting up close next to the device while running it on HIGH. She quipped: "See... nothing happened. I'm still OK." But what really are the long term effects of microwaves? And do they really "zap" the nutrients out of our food?
There seems to be some debate on whether or not microwaves are harmful and if they actually diminish the nutrients in our food. According to Bob Barnett, a health journalist, if you cook your food right, the microwave is actually one of the best ways to retain the minerals and vitamins. Say what? So, if you use your microwave with a tiny amount of water to steam food, you’ll retain more nutritional value than with almost any other cooking method.
But what does registered dietician and certified food scientist Catherine Adams Hutt, RD, Ph.D, have to say about this?
“Whenever you cook food, you’ll have some loss of nutrients. The best cooking method for retaining nutrients is one that cooks quickly, exposes food to heat for the smallest amount of time and uses only a minimal amount of liquid."
For optimal success she added: “When you cook food in a microwave, cover it tightly, creating an efficient steam environment.”
But be careful not to OVERCOOK because that will deplete the nutrients anyway like a zap machine.
So here's where it gets tricky. In this one study, steamed broccoli cooked over the stove retained more of its cancer-fighting sulforaphane than broccoli microwaved. Also, another study showed that microwaved broccoli lost 97% of flavonoids, while only losing 11% steamed.
But spinach seems to do the opposite. When boiled on the stove it lost 70% of its folic acid, but retained nearly most of its folic acid in the microwave cooked with a little water. And with bacon, cooking in the microwave created less nitrosamines -cancer-causing chemicals- than cooking in a griddle.
But overall as long as you use tightly covered microwave-safe containers with minimal water, you might even be able to enhance the nutritional value. For example, making the carotenoids in carrots and tomatoes more easily available to our bodies or allowing the biotin in eggs to be more digestible. And of course heat kills bad bacteria in food such as chicken. Nobody wants to eat raw chicken and get sick!
Now what does the Health Physics Society - a non-profit organization promoting radiation safety say about microwaves?
source - howtoloseweightquicklysite
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| Do Microwaves Destroy Nutrition? |
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| Do Microwaves Destroy Nutrition? |
But what does registered dietician and certified food scientist Catherine Adams Hutt, RD, Ph.D, have to say about this?
“Whenever you cook food, you’ll have some loss of nutrients. The best cooking method for retaining nutrients is one that cooks quickly, exposes food to heat for the smallest amount of time and uses only a minimal amount of liquid."
For optimal success she added: “When you cook food in a microwave, cover it tightly, creating an efficient steam environment.”
But be careful not to OVERCOOK because that will deplete the nutrients anyway like a zap machine.
So here's where it gets tricky. In this one study, steamed broccoli cooked over the stove retained more of its cancer-fighting sulforaphane than broccoli microwaved. Also, another study showed that microwaved broccoli lost 97% of flavonoids, while only losing 11% steamed.
But spinach seems to do the opposite. When boiled on the stove it lost 70% of its folic acid, but retained nearly most of its folic acid in the microwave cooked with a little water. And with bacon, cooking in the microwave created less nitrosamines -cancer-causing chemicals- than cooking in a griddle.
But overall as long as you use tightly covered microwave-safe containers with minimal water, you might even be able to enhance the nutritional value. For example, making the carotenoids in carrots and tomatoes more easily available to our bodies or allowing the biotin in eggs to be more digestible. And of course heat kills bad bacteria in food such as chicken. Nobody wants to eat raw chicken and get sick!
source - howtoloseweightquicklysite
