Change For The Better: Microwaves

I grew up in a microwave dependent household. We used the microwave on a daily basis to heat frozen bagels and canned soup or to reheat coffee and chocolate chip cookies. My mother even had a microwave cookbook from the 1970’s that included recipes for everything from cheesy dips to whole chickens (gross!).

When I went to college my own microwave usage only increased—think Easy Mac, leftover pizza, and hot pockets. Between the processed crap I ate and the amount of alcohol I consumed, it’s a damn miracle I’m still alive!

A family I babysat for didn’t own a microwave and I remember being totally perplexed by this. I thought, They reheat their leftover pizza in the oven?!? Cooking at their house was always frustrating. Without fail I’d reach a step in the cooking process where I’d normally zap something in the microwave, such as frozen veggies. Or I’d want a cup of tea and I’ve have to heat up water in a kettle. I could not understand how they lived without a microwave.

Years later I met Isaac. Being raised by hippies, he was always preaching to me about the energy and prana (life force) in food. He would cringe whenever I went to my go-to kitchen device and begged me to heat food on the stove instead. Being the good girlfriend, I appeased what I consider then, his idiosyncrasies.

About 2 years ago, I became interesting in learning about raw food diets and came across this book. I never really bought into the whole raw diet thing, but one piece of information from 12 Steps to Raw Food caught my attention. The author lived in Russia and said that microwaves were banned for a period of time. I’m not sure why that had such an impact on me, but it did. I began reconsidering my microwave usage and in the past few years, have barely used my microwave.

I made this change based on Isaac’s claim that microwaves kill the energy in food, his roommates claim that microwave radiation is released when you open the door, and reading that a country banned its use because of the link to illness including cancer.

When I decided to add this to my Change For The Better series, I knew I’d better have a little back-up in the form of research. I know there are claims on both sides of the argument and you can believe whatever you want. All I hope to do is share changes I’ve made in my life that I believe contribute to better health.

One article I came across addresses several concerns associated with using microwaves. Allow me to summarize:

• microwaving food changes its chemical structure which can deplete nutritional value
• microwave radiation leaks into your kitchen reaching levels higher than if you were standing next to a cellular tower
• back in the day, Russian researchers conducted studies and found that microwaving food changes some chemical compounds into carcinogenic substances
• biophotons, which is light energy found in foods grown in the sun, are demolished by the microwave (I guess Isaac was right)

Please read the article for more details and references.

Finally, Isaac told me about this experiment where 1 plant is watered with spring water and a second plant is watered with microwaved and cooled water. The plant watered with microwaved water dies. I may actually test this experiment, although they may both die because I have problems keeping plants alive in general, as I mentioned yesterday.

So, I’ve shared the reasons I now severely limit my microwave use. The girl who once believed it was silly to reheat pizza in the oven, reheats her cookies in the oven and wouldn’t be caught dead cooking a chicken in a microwave. But that is for entirely different reasons!

Tagged as: change for the better, food energy, food nutrition, healthy living, microwaves, prana, radiation, websymphonies