How do you find out if cooking in your microwave is healthy or not? Does it take away nutrients or keep them?

Similar questions: find cooking microwave healthy nutrients.

I would think that less nutrients are lost I’m thinking vegetables... If they are boiled in a pot of water, the nutrients in the water are tossed down the drain... When I cook veggies in the microwave, I only add two tablespoons of water, cover them and actually steam them. Some nutrients are usually lost during cooking but I think that less nutrients would be lost by steaming them in the microwave. For the most nutrients, fresh veggies in a salad are fantastic.

Tonight we had huge salads for supper with shredded carrots, garden onions, broccoli and cauliflour tips..along with the usual lettuce, tomato, cucumber..ham and cheese chunks. Great meal for such a hot day. Sources: My experience HELENofTROY's Recommendations Vegetable Harvest: Vegetables at the Center of the Plate Amazon List Price: $34.95 Used from: $20.90 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 12 reviews) Veggie Meals: Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals Amazon List Price: $14.95 Used from: $6.99 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 19 reviews) .

Heating food changes food... I have read accounts and studies that state that microwaving food destroys nutrients and changes some food chemicals into toxins, etc. Most of the folks saying these things talk about scientific studies and research and then are unable to back up any of their statements with anything but more hype... and often they are trying to sell you something. I smell something fishy here... microwaves move molecules by flipping them around (changing polairy) at a frequency of 2450 Megahertz... that produces friction and heat... really the same thing your regular stove does when it applies heat. What is the real difference is it if you heat something in a microwave or over a flame or in boiling water?

Nothing... microwave ovens are just a bit mysterious... how they can heat something without any apparent contact and in a matter of seconds. That makes them ripe for conspiracy theories and such. Can microwaves deplete or reduce the effectiveness of nutrients in food?

Sure they can... just as heat from any source can. Microwave ovens heat food less than many other forms of cooking and they have actually been found to preserve more nutrients in some studies. Folic acid, Vitamin B, and Vitamin C are heat sensitive and water soluable and so most prone to degredation from heat but a Cornell Univerity study found that microwave cooking preserved more of some nutrients than regular cooking.

Also, nitrosamines which are cancer causing and found in cooked bacon are reduced when bacon is microwaved. There is some concern that microwaves can polarize molecules causing the formation of new compounds and "free radicals" that when eaten may be cancer causing. Nothing proven along theses lines thus far... cell walls in organic matter is breached in microwaving and not in oven heating... but the cell walls are breached during your own digestion... so what?

Possibly overheating a food can cause signficant change including the creation of new compounds that may be cancer causing... that is thought to be true no matter how you heat something. So... no proven or known dangers from microwaving food to date.No additional dangers beyond other types of cooking anyway. Probably the bigger danger regarding microwave ovens is the fact that they do expose you to minute amounts of microwave radiation and science really has no clue what the long term effects of this might be.

Probably the best advice... eat more raw foods (or slightly cooked foods) as cooking does destroy nutrients to some degree. Don't overcook things in your microwave (or anywhere). Then step back away from your microwave when cooking.

Sources: A complilation... many articles on the web .

Microwave cooked food is very safe, and nutrients are preserved the same or better than any other method of cooking. Microwaves are a form of "electromagnetic" radiation; that is, they are waves of electrical and magnetic energy moving together through space. Microwaves have three characteristics that allow them to be used in cooking: they are reflected by metal; they pass through glass, paper, plastic, and similar materials; and they are absorbed by foods.

Microwaves cause water molecules in food to vibrate, producing heat that cooks the food. That's why foods high in water content, like fresh vegetables, can be cooked more quickly than other foods. The microwave energy is changed to heat as it is absorbed by food, and does not make food “radioactive” or "contaminated."

Microwave cooking does not reduce the nutritional value of foods any more than conventional cooking. In fact, foods cooked in a microwave oven may keep more of their vitamins and minerals, because microwave ovens can cook more quickly and without adding water. If you have more questions about microwaves and their safety, please visit the FDA website.

Sources: fda.gov/cdrh/consumer/microwave.html .

I had wondered about this for years. Then I heard about a clinic in the Bahamas that routinely saved terminally ill patients. They put them on raw juices and steamed veggies and had an amazing success rate, they rarely ever lost anyone.

They had some good press and got super busy and added some new equipment to keep up, their patients started dying. They were stunned, they had fed them the same foods and veggies but no one was recovering. They carefully searched for any changes, they found that the ONLY change was that they added 2 large microwaves to speed up the vegetable preparation for all the extra patients they had.

They immediately got rid of the microwaves and again they began saving people. This resolved it for me! I use the microwave for non-nutritive things only, popcorn, tea water, etc.Hope this helps.

VictoriaMo .

2 JayD, regarding your answer "Heating food changes food...": .

JayD, regarding your answer "Heating food changes food...

" "Does anyone know what type of fabric you use to make a microwave cooking bag that is used for making baked potatoes.

Does anyone know what type of fabric you use to make a microwave cooking bag that is used for making baked potatoes.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.