The Microwave Oven: Is it actually hurting us? Likely so it appears...

Originally posted by Hr2burn
Is it bad I put my face right up against the microwave door and watch the food turn round and round slowly for anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes. Kinda makes me sleepy, very relaxing. It will be a hard habit to break but it sounds not to be a good idea.

LOL. VERY BAD IDEA!

RTFM - which came with your microwave. (Thats "Read the Friendly Manual")

Staring into a microwave oven can be seriously bad for you. Don't do it children.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Yeah and its not just the radiation from the microwave killing us,

Research heating your food in plastic.

healthy choice and its little black plastic "microwave safe" bowl. there is nothing healthy about that choice.
Heating food in plastic, using plastic spatulas and even some plastic water bottles expose our body to more cancer causing chemicals than cigarettes. Yes it is true. Research it for yourself if you doubt this.
use glass or cast iron and wood utensils

The use of electricity in your house is 10 times more dangerous than eating microwave foods, same goes with using a computer, cell phone, hair dryer or any other electric appliance. turn off your electricity and live in the open air outside because of all the toxic materials and fumes that fill it, same goes for the toxic natural gasses and sun radiation, and the nuclear particles in the soil along with the anthrax and other pathogens that live their as well....just kill yourself and get it over with, there's nothing to live for anyway

A month ago my landlord tossed their microwave on the scrap heap, cause of health concerns, both are above 70 years old and healthier than me.
I inherited there old toaster oven and it about burned down my trailer cause unlike a regular toaster it didn't shut off when the toast / Eggo's were done. Needless to say the burnt to a crisp toaster oven hit the scrap heap next to their microwave.
I took it as sign to just leave my microwave alone and limit it's use.

Good post thanks, rbrtj

Originally posted by ohhwataloser

Artificially produced microwaves, including those in ovens, are produced from alternating current and force a billion or more polarity reversals per second in every food molecule they hit.

well since most microwaves operate at a few thousand hertz, you can only have double that many polarity reversals (2 per complete sine wave). I'm not saying they are not bad for you, but lets at least have some truthful information, few thousand polarity reversals, not billions.....

You are incorrect factually. I have evidence and can prove you wrong.

Microwave ovens operate by emitting a very high power signal in the 2.4 GHz band.

wiki

What is a GIGAHERTZ?

The gigahertz, abbreviated GHz, is a unit of alternating current (AC) or electromagnetic (EM) wave frequency equal to one thousand million hertz (1,000,000,000 Hz).

Looks like 2.4 GHz = billions.

Not thousands.
This is not MHz.

reply to post by phishyblankwaters


they can't handle the truth as usual

the physics is sound

reply to post by muzzleflash


Didn't grow up with one, never owned one.

Now I'm glad for it!

S+F

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade
Not nearly as much as those energy drinks, and especially the small shots said to give hours of energy.

Just wait until the true affects from secret contents in the above are revealed years from now.

Leave my microwave, cell phones and wi-fi alone.

fyi the sugar free energy drinks are actually very VERYgood for you.
just dont drink more than 1 or 2 per day.
most energy drinks are loaded with B vitamins, Taurine, Guarana Ginseng and L-Carnitine all healthy antioxidants so good for you, they give you energy!

Originally posted by Shamatt
Just immagine if we had stupid bussy body scientists, health and safety officers and reporters looking for a story when man first discoverd how to cook over a fire:

Introduction into the human body of high temperateure, hight energy particles of food is unatural, and is much more likely to cause harm than the raw foods we are used to. Hot cooked foods contain particles and energies not present in raw foods. Heat from the Sun is Ok, but heat from the fire is a billion times closer and can cause unatural molecules..... etc

Then lets look at the flawed science:

A BILLION polarity reversals in 1 seccond? What sort of frequecy is that?

According a q very quick look at wikipedia, I find this

A microwave oven works by passing non-ionizing microwave radiation, usually at a frequency of 2.45 gigahertz (GHz)—a wavelength of 122 millimetres (4.80 in)—through the food. Microwave radiation is between common radio and infrared frequencies

Yes. 2.45 GHz. - NOT billions of cycles per seccond at all. So that was just plain wrong.

This is just yyet another scare story. Billions of microwave meals are eaten every day - I don't see billions of people dying from it.

I hate to break it to you but 2.45 GHz = 2.45 GigaHertz = 2.45 billion Hz

Giga = Billion

1 GigaWatt = 1 Billion Watts

Originally posted by tvtexan

Here are the things I've used a microwave for:

................. lighting my cigarette......

How does that work? Like how do you make sure it lights the end and not the middle or wrong end or something?

Originally posted by Flyer
The article is 20 years old.
if there was significant side effects then they would have been banned by now.

Yeah, like they've banned aspartame or the mercury in vaccines or GM foods....good point

THEY will never ban something that brings in profits, no matter how harmful is for our health.
Trust THEM not!

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Originally posted by bhornbuckle75


But Cancer isn't a new thing....it's been around for a very long time. Animals in the wild regularly die from cancer at rates that are comparable to humans. www.livescience.com...

You are twisting the findings.

These are studies from the modern era, but you are claiming/insinuating it indicates there was incidence in the past on par with incidence rates today. This is an incorrect conclusion without legitimate grounds.

If it is pollution causing cancer rates to explode in humans, wouldn't you expect to see plants and animals exhibit the same characteristics since pollution affects them the same way it affects us?

Can you show us a study pre-Industrial Revolution era which indicates that animals had widespread cancer rates? I highly doubt it.

Anyone who believes that the cancer epidemic is related to pollution, would have to by default expect that the animal kingdom will be affected as a whole.

edit on 13-9-2011 by muzzleflash because: (no reason given)

Now your twisting what I said!
I thought this was about microwave oven radiation! That's why I was using modern studies....showing that animals die from cancer just as much as we do. This suggests that Microwave Ovens have nothing to do with Cancer....I was never suggesting that Pollution didn't cause cancer!!! I'm not even sure where you came up with that idea!
I was only making a point about Cancer rates and Microwave Ovens!

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Originally posted by LimitedHorizons
Makes me glad i was inspired by this video and ones like it one day whilst bored and broke my microwave.

The only thing i miss is chicken tika massala . Actually i think I'll buy a new one screw cancer I'm immune or not but it;'s worth it.

edit on 13-9-2011 by LimitedHorizons because: You Tube Link Non-Functional.

If microwave energy "ONLY" affects "H2O" molecules like claimed by so many :

Than how the hell does a Compact Disk react in this manner?

How much water is in a CD? Maybe a little but, seriously it's got this much water in it?

If there is very little to no water molecules within a compact disk's material; how the hell does it melt/burn?

Also, when I open them Microwave oven after cooking for 5 minutes or longer, why isn't the air super-heated? This is interesting because we all know the air itself contains tons' of water vapor. Shouldn't it become heated as well?

I realize I am missing some important facts here. So I will seek answers to these questions in my research tonight and hopefully find out a reasonable explanation chemically of how the CD burns/reacts and why the air is not super heated when you open the microwave door.

Uhm, cd's have a thin wafer of foil inside them. Foil is not water, and it reflects the microwaves, causing the foil to super heat, and combust. Try anything with a LOW moisture content in a microwave, and it will burn.

reply to post by bhornbuckle75


You said "But cancer isn't a new thing..."

Perhaps I misread the context clues you were giving me and made false assumptions.

I honestly took it to mean you were saying 'there is no cancer epidemic it has always been here'. That was the pivot of my post in response to you. I apoligize, obviously I totally misread your intent. That was my bad.

Sorry Bhornbuckle, I now understand your point and I am sorry for misunderstanding.

Originally posted by Druid42


Uhm, cd's have a thin wafer of foil inside them. Foil is not water, and it reflects the microwaves, causing the foil to super heat, and combust. Try anything with a LOW moisture content in a microwave, and it will burn.

Agreed. The point of me bringing it up is because it totally debunks the claims made that "Microwave ovens only affect water molecules" which is apparently not matching up with these videotaped experiments too well.

I suppose I was asking questions partially-rhetorically in that particular post, but answers are always good so thanks for replying.

I didn't know there was a thin wafer of foil inside them, thanks for teaching me something new!

When my microwave broke several years ago I never bought another one, it didn't make sense to spend more money, hurt myself and consume more materials when I could just steam my food or cook my meals from scratch. The quality of my life has gone up.

reply to post by muzzleflash


No problem friend.....Perhaps I should have worded it a bit differently so there was no confusion....

Sorry if I came off rudely in my last reply (I occasionally do....I suffer from 'information super highway road rage' at times)

I have two microwaves in my kitchen. Neither are plugged in, though they are great for bread storage. I met my wife about 12 years ago, and she actually had issues using an oven and stove properly, much less cooking on it.

To this day, if a meal isn't cooked by me, we aren't eating at home. She tried to make salisbury steaks a few weeks ago (the frozen, fully-cooked kind), and after realizing my food was basically pre-chewed I opted to go hungry that night.

Fresh fruit, vegetable, meats and starches are all we go for. If we do buy something premade, it's likely bread and from the fresh baked "Oops, I baked too much." rack. I asked for a breadmaker last Christmas, but alas, I do not have one.

Anyway, not trying to turn this into a wifebashing thread. I digress.

I figured out that cooking is theraputic, better tasting, healthier and more filling a long time ago and never looked back. Good thread, great info. Common knowledge to people who pay attention to their stomachs.

Down with hot pockets, viva fresh food!

I've learned so far in this thread that Microwaves affect water at a frequency of 2.4 Ghz. Interesting.

All the substances we put into a microwave contain water, which by applying energy, changes the molecular state from a liquid to a gas at precisely 212 degrees Fahrenheit. The friction between water molecules create heat, which in turn cooks our food, or coffee, or whatever water laden substance we place inside it. Let me add a little snippet of information:

Water (H2O) is the most abundant compound on Earth's surface, covering about 70%. In nature, it exists in liquid, solid, and gaseous states. It is in dynamic equilibrium between the liquid and gas states at standard temperature and pressure. At room temperature, it is a tasteless and odorless liquid, nearly colorless with a hint of blue. Many substances dissolve in water and it is commonly referred to as the universal solvent. Because of this, water in nature and in use is rarely pure and some of its properties may vary slightly from those of the pure substance

Source. Bold mine.

Water changing it's molecular structure is a naturally occurring process. As intelligent beings, we have derived many means by which to change the molecular structure of water. Microwave ovens are one of the most technologically advanced methods of doing so, and are much more efficient than wasting natural resources such as natural gas, and they save energy by reducing the cooking time required by electrically powered ovens. They are a convenience, a time saver, much as a cell phone is as opposed to sending a letter to someone to convey a message.

There is nothing to fear from changing the state of the most abundant substance on this planet, by whatever means.

Effects on food and nutrients Raisins when cooked in a microwave produce considerable smoke Several studies have shown that if properly used, microwave cooking does not change the nutrient content of foods to a larger extent than conventional heating, and that there is a tendency towards greater retention of many micronutrients with microwaving, probably due to the shorter preparation time.[18] Microwaving human milk at high temperatures is contraindicated, due to a marked decrease in activity of antiinfective factors.[19] Any form of cooking will destroy some nutrients in food, but the key variables are how much water is used in the cooking, how long the food is cooked, and at what temperature.[20] Nutrients are primarily lost by leaching into cooking water, which tends to make microwave cooking healthier, given the shorter cooking times it required.[21] Microwave ovens do convert vitamin B12 from the active to inactive form, making approximately 30-40% of the B12 contained in foods unusable by mammals.[22] Microwaving broccoli loses 74% or more of phenolic compounds (97% of flavonoids), while boiling loses 66% of flavonoids, and high-pressure boiling loses 47%[23], though the study has been contradicted by other studies.[24] To minimize phenolic losses in potatoes, microwaving should be done at 500W.[25] Spinach retains nearly all its folate when cooked in a microwave; in comparison, it loses about 77% when cooked on a stove, because food on a stove is typically boiled, leaching out nutrients. Bacon cooked by microwave has significantly lower levels of carcinogenic nitrosamines than conventionally cooked bacon.[20] Steamed vegetables tend to maintain more nutrients when microwaved than when cooked on a stovetop.[20] Microwave blanching is 3-4 times more effective than boiled water blanching in the retaining the water-soluble vitamins folic acid, thiamin and riboflavin, with the exception of ascorbic acid, of which 28.8% which is lost (vs. 16% with boiled water blanching).[26]

Source.

It seems that microwave ovens are useful, for certain things, and your oven or grill is useful for others. I view it as simply another convenience to help us prepare a meal. Or to reheat a coffee.

I've found no modern evidence of the harmful effects of microwave ovens. Common sense dictates use in moderation, as with anything, but to pitch a modern convenience in the trash can because of an irrational fear of a technology that has been proven over time is simply illogical.

To each their own.

isnt this all psuedo-science? microwaves are 100% harmless.
what it does to food is debatable but im convinced its completely harmless.
what makes me laugh is the people who say they stand well back from the microwave when its switched on.
this just shows you know absoloutly nothing about how microwaves work.
pressing your face against the door would make no difference.