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Microwaves have become a part of everyone’s kitchen as they have been around for years and offer a fast way to heat or cook food quickly. Microwave ovens can be found in more than 90% of homes in the United States. My friends and family think I’m crazy because I’m part of the 10% that do not have a microwave.

This is not because I can’t afford one or because my last one stopped working. I simply chose to pick it up and dump it in the trash where it belongs after I found a long list of why I should not be microwaving my food. It does little for me other than making things faster, so I just need to work a little harder to stay healthy. Why is it not healthy to use a microwave when people have been doing it for years? Plenty of people are not aware or do not care about the fact that microwaving food diminishes its nutritional value. Prolonged contact to microwave ovens can be a hazard to your health and you could develop problems that you would not normally attribute to a kitchen appliance, so it is easy to miss the connection. You will find plenty of research out there concerning the dangers of microwave exposure over a long period of time. It is said that there could be a link to microwave exposure and cancer as well as the risk of developing cataracts. Rather than worrying whether or not I was too close to the microwave or to grab my daughter should she decide to walk by it, I figured just taking the darn thing and dumping it out would be the best idea. All I ever really used it for was to make popcorn and heat water for hot beverages. I could use a teapot and for those rare times and cook my popcorn in a popcorn maker. After all, it certainly beats putting myself and my family at risk for going blind or getting cancer.

Microwaving can actually change the makeup of your food by stretching and deforming the molecules until they become something different while destroying most of its nutritional value. The molecules of the food start to rub against each other in turn causing them to get warmer, and the faster they move and the faster they heat up, the more they rip and deform. The scientific term for this type of process is referred to as “structural isomerism”. I think of how my food would feel more chewy and rubbery after I reheated it in the microwave and wonder if this is not evidence of this transformation. The structural isomerism of the food in the microwave is also said to form new compounds that are completely unknown to our bodies, even to nature itself. These are referred to as radiolytic compounds.

The information that I gathered was not just taken from your average article online. There have been actual studies on the subject. The FDA seems very confident in assuring the public that microwaves do not generally pose any harm to consumers. They do state however that, “Accidental exposure to high levels of microwave energy can alter or kill sperm, producing temporary sterility”. It must have taken a lot for them to release this statement. Dr. David Carpenter (Dean of the US School of Public Safety, NYU) tells the public he is convinced that almost one third of childhood cancers are the result of Electromagnetic Frequencies like those of microwave ovens. He actually suggests that people abstain completely from using microwaves. Two researchers in Switzerland discovered that eating microwaved food caused the subjects’ blood hemoglobin levels to drop, white blood cell levels increase and LDL (bad) cholesterol to increase compared to HDL cholesterol.

Here is what the Minnesota Extension Service of the University of Minnesota had to say in 1989 about heating baby bottles in the microwave:

“Although microwaves heat food quickly, they are not recommended for heating a baby’s bottle. The bottle may seem cool to the touch, but the liquid inside may become extremely hot and could burn the baby’s mouth and throat. Also, the buildup of steam in a closed container, such as a baby bottle, could cause it to explode. Heating the bottle in a microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In infant formulas, there may be a loss of some vitamins. In expressed breast milk, some protective properties may be destroyed. Warming a bottle by holding it under tap water, or by setting it in a bowl of warm water, then testing it on your wrist before feeding may take a few minutes longer, but it is much safer.”

If you are still not convinced at least follow these precautions:

Stand in the next room when you microwave your food. One researcher tested the EMFs near his microwave and noticed that they were leaking from his microwave up to six feet away.

Take a multivitamin to replace the nutrients you are losing out of your food.

Cover your bases by taking other preventative care of your body to help fight cancer.