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Microwave ovens are popular for reheating, and even cooking, a variety of meals. Thanks to modern science, we can now heat food rapidly, from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, at most. However, while this might seem like a convenient way to keep up with our fast-paced lifestyles, note that there may be dangers associated with microwaving food.
Recent studies show that microwaves absolutely decimate the nutritional value of your food, destroying the very vitamins and phytonutrients that prevent disease and support good health. Phytonutrients (also referred to as phytochemicals) are compounds which help protect plants’ vitality.
To understand why and how microwaves destroy these phytonutrients, you have to understand the nature of these compounds. Phytonutrients are very delicate molecules which are easily destroyed by heat. Carotenoids, antioxidants and other molecules like DIM or diindolylmethane (in broccoli) or anthocyanins (in purple corn) are all easily destroyed by microwave energy. Previous studies have shown that as much as 98% of the cancer-fighting nutrients found in broccoli, for example, are destroyed by microwaving. Any cooking will actually change the nutrient component of food in some way, though low and slow cooking seem to preserve the most nutrients. Faster methods of cooking (microwave being the fastest), on the other hand, destroy more nutrients.
“Nuke it” simply means to “microwave something.” Microwaving is the worst way to cook foods because microwaves excite the water molecules inside whatever you’re cooking, causing heat to be formed from the inside out. These results in a cell-by-cell “nuking” of the food, causing the near-total molecular decomposition of the vitamins and phytonutrients that promote health. Microwaved food is not merely “dead” food at every level, it is food that has been molecularly deconstructed, leaving nothing but empty calories, fiber and minerals. Virtually the entire vitamin and phytonutrient content has been destroyed.
Anybody who says microwaving food is a healthy way to cook is wildly ignorant of nutrition and cooking methods. While steaming is, indeed, a good method for some vegetables, microwaving destroys veggies from the inside out at a cellular level.
Looking at microwaved food under the microscope has been described as looking at a “nutritional wasteland.”
If you want to eat in a healthy way, make sure a significant part of your diet consists of raw plants. It’s okay to eat some steamed, stir-fried or even grilled veggies, but when grilling foods, remember to avoid burning them because all burned parts contain toxic, cancer-causing chemicals that promote colon cancer.
A lot of people don’t even know the adverse effects of microwave cooking. Remember, a person who cooks a lot of their food with microwaves will inevitably have chronic nutritional deficiencies that promote cancer, diabetes, bone diseases, loss of brain function, heart disease and many other health problems.
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