Funkii Munkii

http://blpublications.com/html/body_...aveovens_.html

I've just read this and feel like throwing the thing in the bin, I've never been a big user mainly a reheater, but after reading this it makes you think, I accept that this is probably part truth part rubbish and part scare mongering and if they were that bad they would carry a Govt health warning?? or would they.

I certainly wouldn't use it to heat anything for my 18 month old daugher.

Just curious to see what others think

the moose

Everyone's entitled to their view.

Just remember that there are still people who believe the earth to be flat, that the moon landings were faked, and that Michael Jackson is a 100% red-blooded heterosexual who in no way all likes young boys.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

I don't think I've read quite such biased, unjustified, selective and paranoid twaddle for a long time. The author would get on well working for a speed camera partnership.

NotoriousREV

I hate food that's been anywhere near a microwave. That said, I don't believe a word of that article.

dome

/\ What he said. /\

CrisPDuk

"Many of us come from a generation where mothers and grandmothers have distrusted the modern "inside out" cooking they claimed was "not suitable" for most foods. My mother refused to even try baking anything in a microwave. She also didn't like the way a cup of coffee tasted when heated in a microwave oven. I have to fully agree and can't argue either fact."

Any reasonably competent lawyer will tell you that the two points stated there as 'fact' are in fact hearsay & conjecture.

I have to say I'm with NREV & dome on this one, 'BS' publications might be a better name for that site

OllyK

Show me any method of cooking that is natural, as far as I am aware, everything comes raw, it's only humans that cook stuff.

I remember hearing it, doesn't make it any more true than hearing about faries though. Latest evidence shows no link between phones and brain cancer.

Sniff, sniff - what's that I smell. Water molecules have a more positive and negative (I assume that's the point of the "especially") than other "food" molecule. Anbody want to give me the chemical formulae for a "food" molecule??

I give you a microwaved meal looks pretty anaemic and unappetising, but it isn't a major health concern unless you drop the bloody thing down yourself and get scalded.

ajm

Agree with above. The article is without foundation as far as I can tell. Of course cooking (by any mechanism) can alter the food structurally and chemically, as can freezing. To then infer that specifically cooking by microwave is harmful is a leap which, as far as that article is concerned, is completely groundless and unproved.

Microwave meals - by appointment to ajm!

carl

Actually it just means that the microwave frequency used is one that's easily absorbed by water molecules. The waves really do shift the molecules' alignment -- then frictional heating heats the food.

Tiggs

article sounds pants...however, we chucked ours in the skip when we refitte the kitchen 3 years ago and have never missed it....cant see we'd ever get one now.

T

OllyK

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that it was to do with the water molecules being caused to resonate due to the particular wavelength of the microwaves. This resonance then causes heat due to friction etc.

It has **** all to do with positive and negative "ends". Indeed unless things have changed since my days in the lab, molecules and atoms don't have "ends" but they can have a net positive or negative charge (ions). They are basically spouting garbabe but trying to wrap it up in some scientific wording they once heard to make it sound convincing.

Here's some more:
No, ionising radiation can cause ionisation, but not all radiation is ionising.

Nope, it causes the water molecules to vibrate rather quickly, that's it. There may be chemical change cuased by heating the food up, but that's true of cooking by any method.

For a bit of sanity...

carl

My understanding is that water molecules are naturally polarized, hence they do have a "positive" and a "negative" end.

'Food has a high percentage of water, and water is famously H2O. The molecule of water has the O (Oxygen) in the middle, and the two H's (Hydrogen) stuck on it like Mickey Mouse ears at a particular angle (105o). The H's are positive and the O is negative, so the molecule has a + and - end. It has "polarity".'

From http://www.zyra.org.uk/microw.htm

CrisPDuk

We're just finishing putting our new kitchen in, and we have banished the microwave to the garage. The only time it ever gets used anyway is when I reheat brews that have gone to cold when I'm working out there

scoobydooooo

my whole belief system dashed in one post !!!!!!!

ProperCharlie

which is why mircowave ovens work.

OllyK

Guess I had forgotten more chemistry than I thought! I stand corrected. That doesn't mean that I think that article is worth jack though

ajm

One would have thought it would be far easier to make a case for oven cooked food to be dangerous. Going back to Olly's point on grilling etc. further up, it is known that burning animal fat can release carcinogens, and protein and creatine in muscle tissue (i.e. meat!) can form potentially carcinogenic amines when exposed to high temperatures. Remember the old "don't eat burnt food" scare a few years back?

The main reason people fear microwaves is the word "radiation" in my opinion. This conjurs up an image of lingering "radio activity" and mutation amongst the ignorant.

To me the microwave represents a convenient, safe and very energy efficient way of cooking (or heating ready made meals in my case ).