With the economy still in recession, more American families are eating at home rather than eating out, but most aren't making hearty, traditional meals on the stovetop or in the oven. They're nuking.
A new report from market research company NPD found that more Americans are microwaving their meals instead of making them on the stovetop. Stovetop cooking has been on the decline and microwave use has been rising since the mid-1980s. This study, the "24th Annual Report on Eating Patterns in America," microwave use is at an all-time high. In 1985, 52 percent of meals were prepared on the stove top. Today that number has dropped to 33 percent, while the number of main meals cooked in the microwave has risen to almost 23 percent.
Microwaves are fast and can save energy, but they may not the safest option for cooking food. Studies have shown that daily exposure to microwave emissions shouldn't exceed more than 1 milliwatt per minute, but average microwave use exceeds this. Microwave cooking may also change food's nutritional quality.
This isn't to say any of us is going to get rid of our convenient microwaves. It might not hurt to use them a little less often -- more for popcorn, less for full meals -- if you're concerned about microwave emissions, though.
Besides, there's something really lovely about stirring a pot of soup on the stovetop.
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But I am concerned about the health effects.
I usually leave the room when I microwave stuff, absorbed radio energy falls as the distance Squared, so even a 10 feet is very much less.
I also purchased a microwave meter, and I test my microwaves to both verify low emission, and learn the overall pattern they radiate in, so I can avoid it. I measure the office microwaves, and all my friends ovens too.
Cataracts are one of the proven long term effects of microwave exposure, so I face away.
I have noticed that certain foods microwave poorly, soft breads for instance, so I bake toast.
We should lower the allowable microwave emission to what the Russian used, about 1 tenth of ours. The American Embassy in Moscow have microwaves beamed at it, to activate a passive microwave microphone. The US can't complain because the power levels were below our standard, but above the Russian standards. The Ambassadors have an unusually high cancer rate.
about proteins being turned from left-handed proteins into right-handed proteins in the microwave, Since all known life uses only left handed versions of amino-acids to build proteins, are we killing ourselves slowly by starving our bodies w/ the wrong type of protein? Here’s an interesting article from Dr. Mercola’s web site:
http://www.mercola.com/article/microwave/hazards.htm
I think we would notice if all the microwaved foods in all the home, restaurants and all the baby formulas was creating 2ml per L = .2% toxic isomers.
No one seem to be able to replicate Lita's results,
Lita sell all sorts of health books and potions.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf00010a034