How microwaving affects nutrients in food.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
The Claim: Microwaving destroys nutrients and makes food harmful.
Woman: “I’ve heard that microwaves do bad things to food so I try to avoid using them as mush as possible because I don’t want to put my family at risk.”
Robert Davis: On the internet you can find all kinds of scary warnings about microwave ovens. Among them is the claim that microwaving has harmful effects on food, including the loss of nutrients. In fact what’s really being lost is the truth.
Microwaves are a form of low-energy radiation that causes molecules in food to vibrate rapidly and produce heat.
This cooks the food but does not otherwise change its chemical or molecular structure.
Nor does it make food radioactive.
Microwaving, like all other forms of cooking, can cause certain nutrients to break down.
How much depends in part on how quickly the food cooks. Generally, the shorter the time it’s heated, the more that vitamins and minerals are preserved.
Because microwave ovens cook food… especially veggies…relatively fast, they actually preserve nutrients better than most other methods.
Another factor is water: the less the better.
Boiling broccoli on the stove, for example, lowers vitamin c levels by a third.
But microwaving it with just a little water retains virtually all of the vitamin.
And in some cases microwaving can actually increase levels of nutrients.
For instance, antioxidant levels in carrots are higher when they’re cooked by microwave or other methods than when they’re raw.
A related…and more alarming… internet rumor about microwaving is that it forms substances in food that are cancer-causing or otherwise dangerous. But there’s no credible scientific evidence to support this.
What research does show is that cooking cured meats like bacon or sausage in the microwave produces much lower levels of cancer-promoting compounds called nitrosamines than frying them in a skillet.
One legitimate concern about microwave ovens is that they cook less evenly than conventional ones… possibly leaving bacteria in certain spots that can cause illness.
To avoid this, cover the food… stir half-way through cooking… and check the internal temperature with a thermometer.
Also, follow instructions about letting food sit after removing it from the microwave. During this so-called “standing time,” the temperature rises several degrees and the food continues to cook, which further ensures it’ll be safe to eat.
Helping you be a healthy skeptic, I’m Robert Davis.