Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Microwaved foods

haydz - 20-8-2006 at 20:56

Hello,

I've recently come across websites pointing out that microwaving foods somehow changes the "molecular structure" and produces chemicals that are foreign to the body and therefor cause problems for us. There is also some stuff about microwaves being banned in russia some time ago because there is apparently a lot of risks involved in using one.

heres a website stating all these claims

http://www.mercola.com/article/microwave/hazards.htm

heres another website containing a very simple project whereby some water was microwaved and given to a plant which then died.

http://www.uneasysilence.com/archive/2006/04/6058/
-this is a very poorly done scientifical experiment, and its not proved anything, its just another site ive added to show how much "fuss" has gone into it all.

Is there any hard evidence, not just a bunch of fancy words and claims that microwaving foods can be unhealthy? I myself microwave food often and never felt any different, according to the first website, it destroys the foods nutrients, and so for years now i would have been eating eggs, milk etc with no nutrients?

What are your thoughts on the subject. (i searched the forum and couldnt find anything on this, so if there is already a topic on this could someone point me towards it?)

[Edited on 21-8-2006 by haydz]

not_important - 20-8-2006 at 21:36

From the mercola.com link
Quote:
A loss of 60-90% of the vital energy field content of all tested foods

By comparison, microwaves from the sun are based on principles of pulsed direct current (DC) that don't create frictional heat; microwave ovens use alternating current (AC) creating frictional heat.

A breakdown of the human "life-energy field" in those who were exposed to microwave ovens while in operation,


Granted that microwave heating is not identical to simple conductive or IR radiative heating, I still find many of the claims at that site a bit questionable. Perhaps if there was widespread scientific acceptance of "life energy" and "vital enegr" fields, I'd buy into the claims a bit more.

Soviet science research of the `50s through `70s was noted for some rather odd concepts, things like people being able to see with their skin and so on.

neutrino - 20-8-2006 at 22:18

Let’s have some fun dissecting that article.
Quote:
But the microwave is most familiar to us as an energy source for cooking food.

If the microwave is an energy source, why do we have to plug it in? :P
Quote:
By comparison, microwaves from the sun are based on principles of pulsed direct current (DC) that don't create frictional heat; microwave ovens use alternating current (AC) creating frictional heat.

Okay, I understand now. While microwave ovens use dangerous AC current, the sun is powered by natural DC current.
Quote:
A microwave oven produces a spiked wavelength of energy with all the power going into only one narrow frequency of the energy spectrum. Energy from the sun operates in a wide frequency spectrum.

So what? Fluorescent bulbs only generate light in narrow bands, so are they inherently dangerous compared to incandescent bulbs too?
Quote:
Chalk one up for mom's perception, because even though she didn't know the scientific, technical, or health reasons why, she just knew that microwave ovens were not good based on how foods tasted when they were cooked in them. She didn't like the way the texture of the microwaved food changed either.

I don’t even want to think where science would be if we all followed this author’s philosophy.
Quote:
A number of warnings have been made public, but have been barely noticed. For example, Young Families, the Minnesota Extension Service of the University of Minnesota, published the following in 1989…some protective properties may be destroyed

I can say with almost complete certainty that this supposedly “independent” group was founded and run by traditional oven companies. Note the fuzzy language “protective properties”: another emotional appeal with no substance. This kind of PR is common. (Note that the microwave people probably did the same thing.)

I could go on, but it’s pretty late here and I could use some sleep.


With this BS article aside, does anyone know with any certainty whether microwaving food does really damage it in some way? I've heard it both ways.

haydz - 20-8-2006 at 22:34

haha thats why i love these forums, people pick out and disect things you never look at twice :)

chemoleo - 21-8-2006 at 04:58

We just recently got a microwave based peptide synthesiser into our lab. Peptides are of course proteins, our molecules of life. Anyway, we had concerns with using microwave on longer peptides because of D-L racemisation occurring on the peptide backbone. So instead of the usual L-form, you get the D-form that is not and cannot be used by nature.

These microwaves work at roughly 75 Watt, so by far not the power output than the ones used in kitchens (600-1000).

Anyway, recently research showed apparently no increased racemisation occurs (which is great for us). But this is still controversial. Microwave DOES speed up reaction rates of certain chemical reactions, which is NOT solely due to the temperature effect. Similarly, this will also be the case with food. You'll undoubtedly get reaction products that dont occur naturally, even with hot burnt food. Whether they are bad for you or not is another question.

Eat your microwave food with care! And I'd stay away from cooking high protein foods with microwave! :P

slight off-topic

Brie - 21-8-2006 at 09:48

When I was a kid, I used to stand in front of the microwave oven impatiently waiting for my food to get done. One day, my mom jokingly said that if I did that, I'd get irradiated and turn into a mutant. The unfortunate side-effect of this was that at the time I was obsessed with the X-men, so I purposely stood in front of microwaves till I was almost 14:P

jack-sparrow - 21-8-2006 at 12:58

First, domestic microwave ovens use multiple frequencies and the power is distributed between these numerous frequencies. If you want a narrow range of frequencies, you have to buy an expensive (10000 US$) microwave reactor.

Second, to interact with microwave, a molecule must have be polarizable. CO2 does not interact with microwave. You can try to melt (sublime) dry ice in a microwave. It does not work. Water has a dipole so it can interact with microwaves of "determined" frequencies. The other ones are not used. When a water molecule interacts with the proper frequency, its rotational energy increases by increments. Since rotational energy and translational energy are the two parts of the molecular agitation, the final product heats. When you heat a product by the conventional way, you excite both translational (mainly) and rotational energy levels. They cool down by emitting in the infrared spectrum. Rotational energy is "lost" more rapidly than translational energy. That is why food heated in the microwave cools down faster than when heated traditionally.

Third, since you can produce chemical reactions by heating, you can do the same with microwave. But you need the right frequency to do so. If you have it, the reaction can happen in 30 seconds instead of 8 hours of conventional heating.

So

Yes, microwave oven can create chemical reactions in less than 2 minutes.
But I think that reaction products wont be as bad as Kraft Dinner, wiener or cheez whiz.

Twospoons - 21-8-2006 at 14:34

Its the same old story of perceived risk vs actual risk. People see 'microwave' = 'radiation' = 'Bad'. Forgetting, course that much of their food is packed with colorants, flavours and preservatives - some of which are quite toxic in large amounts. Lets not also forget those lovely caramelised flavours you get by frying a steak in a stinking hot pan - mmm, acrylamide! This is not to say that microwaves don't damage food, they probably do, but so do other forms of cooking.

Same panic over cellphones. "Big cellphone mast must have big transmitter, = radiation so keep them away our schools!". Reality is the base transmitter isn't that much stronger than the phones, and its up a 20m pole, not 2cm from your skull.

Jimmymajesty - 16-6-2010 at 13:25

The microwaved food does not cool down fater than the food heated traditionally.. why should it cool faster?

Maybe this false perception is due to the longer heating period in case of normal heating, so the food has longer time to be heated up, also you probably stir the food during the heating, while at microwaving you probably not:)

I am of the opinion that the microwaved foods tends to have different taste.
and the food out of the microwave is still emitting RF that damages your stomach in the long run, and also decreases your leucocyte number.

zed - 17-6-2010 at 01:59

Nice way to bake a cake, or cornbread. Quick, and they seem to rise and rise.

Nice way to bake half a chicken too. Nuke it for 10 to 15 minutes, in a covered casserole dish, then let the chicken finish cooking itself, via its internal heat. Yummm!

Moist, succulent, delicious. Of course, the skin looks like zombie skin, but those of us that are health conscious, don't eat the skin anyway. We take it, and the copious juices evolved, and we use them in the cooking of the Jasmine rice that we feed to our guard dogs. Apparently, dogs don't suffer from arterial sclerosis.