Microwaves are one of the most convenient ways to cook or heat food. Almost every house of the United States consists of a microwave. And the efficiency of it is undeniable. However, despite such widespread use and such excellent safety records of the microwave ovens, some of the people have lingering doubts about if cooking or heating food in a microwave is somehow bad or does it make the food less healthy. Does cooking in microwave zapping out some of the nutritional values of the food? Let’s find out. And if you are shopping online, use Kogan free shipping code to skip shipping charges and to get stunning deals and offers.
How cooking in microwave works?
A microwave oven cooks the food using energy waves that are similar to the radio waves, but shorter than that. These waves are very remarkably selective, and it initially affects water and some other electrically asymmetrical molecules. One of the ends charged positively, and the other end gets charged negatively. The microwave cause vibrations to the particles, and thus, it quickly builds up thermal energy.
Now the question, is it safe for cooking or heating food?
Some of the nutrients break down being exposed to the direct heat. It does not matter if you are using a microwave or a regular oven. Vitamin C may be the most evident example. However, as cooking time in a microwave is much shorter than the regular ovens, it does a better job to preserve Vitamin C and such other nutrients that also breaks down when exposed to direct heat for a longer time span.
However, as far as the vegetables go, cooking them is water leaches out some of their nutritional values in the boiled water. For example, boiled broccoli loses its sulphur-containing compound, the compound that supposed to give broccoli its anti-cancer properties. So steaming vegetables in microwave is better to some extent. Taking the same example, steamed broccoli holds on more glucosinolate than boiled or fried ones.
Here are some food types that are not that safe considering heating them in a microwave.
Experts say there is some kind of dry fruits that can catch fire in the microwave. Foods like dry pastas, processed meat, hot pepper, and dry fruits should not be in the microwave. Food safety, however, is not the only makes people hesitated about using a microwave oven. Human health is another crucial aspect that plays a big part using a microwave.
So, here the question comes,
Are microwaves bad for health?
The cooking method that helps to retain healthy nutrition in the food ideally is to cook quickly. Heating the food soon, in the shortest amount of time uses as little liquid as possible to heat the food. Using the microwave for a smaller amount of water will essentially steam the food up from inside out. It keeps more vitamins and minerals inside the food. This shows how microwave cooking can be healthy too. Plus, vegetables are the most nutritious foods no matter how you cook them. And we don’t eat a lot of them.
Experts say that certain types of containers are not safe or not recommended for microwaves, such as the Metal containers, Soft plastic materials, paper plates and cardboard. They also say that some types of foods experience a reduction in the vitamin content of microwave ovens. Although rapid heating can be less detrimental in microwave ovens rather than the conventional heating process.
And as far the question goes about if microwave cooking is good or bad? Well, microwave ovens are a marvellous engineering discovery. It is a miraculously convenient device to match our fast-paced lifestyle, and if used properly, it is also nutritionally advantageous too.