Highlights
-- Scores of people use microwave to heat their food
-- Microwave is a small device that heats the food using radiations
-- Some people also microwave to cook food, but how safe is it?
Is it dangerous to heat food in a microwave or just a myth? This topic is still trending after decades of microwave usage. Microwave appliances are present in almost every household today and are being used for cooking, heating, baking etc. It has become a necessity rather than a status symbol, especially in homes where both the partners are working. A microwave is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. Professionals usually prefer stovetop or conventional ovens for cooking, as they believe that dishes do not get the right flavours by other cooking methods. In Indian homes, microwave ovens are often an easy and non-messy way of reheating food, boiling water, or even steaming idly, dhokla or vegetables. Our traditional cooking method and microwave don't really go together.
The debate around cooking in the microwave actually goes beyond taste-it is about radiation entering the food (and hence our body), it is about the destruction of nutrients in the food, and definitely about the plastic containers and how their chemicals seep into our food causing tremendous long term harm to our body.
Nutrient Loss
The best way to ensure that we get the maximum nutrition from our food is to buy fresh and locally grown food. Nutrients can be lost by adopting wrong washing techniques, so if you wash your vegetables after cutting, you will lose water-soluble vitamins. Cooking for long periods of time or at high temperature also destroy nutrients. Roasting meat (conventionally) leads to the production of dangerous nitrosamines- in the brown/burnt part- which are associated with several health problems.
Microwave cooking also influences the nutrients. Vitamin B12 is lost in microwave cooking by becoming inactive due to heat, and the temperature in the MVO may go very high-the only plus point is that microwave cooking needs a little lesser time so some nutrients may be saved.
Another water-soluble vitamin – Folate – is lost when green leafy vegetables are boiled in water but cooking in MVO helps prevent this loss to up to 77%. In Indian homes, the loss is mostly because all greens are chopped before washing but cooking is mostly a stir fry or steaming without blanching. Whereas meats cooked in MVO (microwave) have much lower nitrosamine levels because they usually don't get brown in a microwave.
Plastic Poison
Plastic contains a chemical called Phthalates, which seeps into the food when plastic containers are heated in microwaves. This is added to make plastic more flexible and is commonly found in takeaway containers, plastic bottles and plastic wrapping sheets. These are harmful for our body. Studies have shown that these compounds could disrupt our hormones and metabolic system increasing the risk of CHD, insulin resistance, infertility, and asthma among others. However, scientists haven't really been able to define the level of ingestion where it gets poisonous. Another chemical commonly heard of in this context is Bisphenol (BPA), which has similar reactions in the body.