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Does microwaving kill nutrients in food? Is
microwaving safe?
May 6, 2005
Dear Cecil:
We have friends who insist they won't eat microwave-cooked items and
refuse to own a microwave oven, claiming it has deleterious effects on the
nutritional value of food. I chuckle over their sensitivity--seems most
restaurants today serve many items that are cooked rapidly using
microwaves, so I'll bet our friends eat some of these foods unknowingly. My
wife, however, is becoming alarmed over their queer beliefs. Please give her
peace of mind. Are our friends' fears groundless, or am I the goat on this
one?
Norm, via e-mail
Probably your friends are getting worked up over nothing, but this is one
subject where you want to resist sweeping pronouncements. On its face,
antimicrowave propaganda (you'll find loads of it on the Web) is none too
persuasive--some of these people have yet to comprehend the crucial
distinction between ionizing and nonionizing radiation. (Ionizing radiation is
the nuclear, i.e., dangerous, kind, which includes X rays, gamma rays, etc;
nonionizing is everything else, e.g., microwaves, not to mention light.) When
you dig into the research, though, you realize the controversy isn't all hooey.
On the contrary, what we've got here is one of the great coal-mine fires of
science--an argument that, in this case, has been smoldering for 50 years
without resolution. Unexpected recent developments, though, make me think
we may get to the bottom of this pup yet.
The central issue is whether there's such a thing as a "microwave effect"--that
is, whether microwaves do anything that conventional heating methods don't.
The main way microwaves heat up a plate of leftovers is by causing the food
molecules to vibrate--an accelerated version of what ordinary cooking does.
The microwave effect, if it exists, is more mysterious and potentially a lot
scarier. For example, some conjecture that certain frequencies of microwave
radiation can resonate with food, body tissues, and whatnot. Just as a
low-power radio wave reaching a tuned-in boom box can rattle windows, a
seemingly innocuous beam of microwave energy striking a harmonically
attuned target may have disruptive effects. Microwave ovens aren't the only or
necessarily the most urgent cause for alarm, either. Another significant
source of microwaves, admittedly of a different frequency, is the ubiquitous
cell phone, which people hold for extended periods to their ears, only a few
centimeters from their brains.
The mainstream response to fear of microwaves is generally: You're on crack.
For years the common view among scientists has been that the microwave
effect is a myth and that whatever happens in a microwave oven happens
because stuff gets hot. But disquieting indications to the contrary persistently
come to light. For instance, in a paper often cited by microwave foes, doctors
at Stanford University (Quan et al, 1992) reported that microwaving frozen
breast milk sharply reduced the potency of the natural infection-fighting
agents it contained. "The adverse effects . . . are difficult to explain on the
basis of hyperthermia [high heat] alone," they wrote.
Yeah, sure, whatever. But now that attitude may be shifting, in part because of
that unexpected development I was telling you about: microwave ovens'
finding their way out of the kitchen and into the laboratory. Scientists have
long used microwave ovens to heat up their coffee just like everybody else, but
in the late 1980s they came to a startling realization: The ovens could greatly
accelerate useful chemical reactions, sometimes by a factor of a thousand.
Processes that once took hours, days, or months could be completed in
minutes, often without the toxic solvents previously required. Initially
researchers used consumer-model ovens they bought at the appliance store,
but soon realized what chicken potpie lovers had known for years, namely that
an ordinary microwave oven is not a precision instrument and often gives
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unpredictable results. With burgeoning interest in "microwave chemistry"
and a corresponding push to improve microwave hardware, a few big heads
conceded that maybe it was time to inquire more deeply into how these things
actually worked. The matter has yet to be fully elucidated, but already some
think the microwave effect may not be a myth after all: "One suggestion," a
bunch of chemists wrote recently, "is that this is some form of
'ponderomotive' driving force that arises when high frequency electric fields
modulate ionic currents near interfaces with abrupt differences in ion
mobility."
You'll excuse me if I don't translate. My point is, a lot more people who can
say "ponderomotive" without blinking are now burning up the dendrites
trying to figure out what microwaves do, a necessary first step in determining
whether that's good or bad for those less interested in ionic currents than
lunch. Granted, none of this resolves your question, mainly because we still
don't have enough info to answer it with anything other than paranoid
speculation or empty reassurance. But at least there's the prospect that
someday we will.
Cecil Adams
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