Food and water molecules have a positive and negative end similar to the north and south polarity of a magnet. The magnetron in a microwave oven generates an alternating current of more than a billion cycles per second. As this extremely rapid alternating microwave frequency bombards food, it causes the molecules of the food to reverse polarity at the same billions of times per second. This agitation creates molecular “friction”, producing heat – but also tearing apart and deforming the food molecules. (We receive some microwave frequencies from the sun, but it is a direct current which does not create molecular friction.)
When food is microwaved, amino acids (the building blocks of protein) are converted from the natural trans- and l- forms to biologically inactive and even nerve and kidney toxic cis- and d- forms (University of Vienna, 1989.)
In 1992, researchers at Stanford University Medical Center found that warming breast milk in a microwave oven destroyed 98% of the antibodies that provide passive immunity to infants, and destroyed 96% of liposome activity that inhibits bacterial growth.
Russian investigations found that cancer causing substances are formed in virtually all microwaved foods. They also found an average of 60 to 90% decreased nutritional value of microwaved foods. The Soviet Union banned the use of microwave ovens in 1976.
In 1991, a lawsuit in Oklahoma concerned the use of microwaved blood given as a transfusion for a hip surgery patient. She died from the transfusion. (Blood for transfusions is routinely warmed, but not in a microwave oven.)
In a study comparing the consumption of food heated by microwave vs. other methods of cooking, the microwaved food causes a decrease in hemoglobin, an increase in white blood cells (the body’s response to a toxin) and increased LDL (bad) cholesterol.
Among those who consume mostly microwaved foods, the following is found: increased rate of digestive disorders; stomach and intestinal cancer, lymphatic and immune disorders, cancers of the lymph and blood, lowered hormone production, loss of memory and concentration, emotional instability, decrease in intelligence, weight problems.
I have not found a single study by any governmental body on the effects of consuming microwaved food. I do find that my toaster oven and stovetop work quite well for my cooking and baking needs!
References:
“Comparative Study of Food Prepared Conventionally and in the Microwave Oven”, Drs. Hans Hertel and Bernard Blanc, Raum & Zelt, 1992.
“Health Effects of Microwave Radiation – Microwave Ovens”, Lita Lee, PhD, 1991.
Julian Whitaker, MD, Health and Healing: Tomorrow’s Medicine Today, 1993.
Paul Brodeur, The Zapping of America: Microwaves, Their Deadly Risk and the Cover-Up, 1977.
“Effects of Microwave Radiation on Anti-infective Factors in Human Milk”, Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 89, no. 4, April 1992.