Microwave Ovens

In the early 1960s I was a young teenager living with my family in Los Angeles. One weekend my parents went to the New Products Home Show downtown. They came home with a crazy, new, space-age invention called a microwave or radar oven. Nobody had ever heard of such a thing before. They installed it and the whole family gathered around as my mom put an egg in a bowl and set the timer for 10 seconds. At about 8 seconds the egg exploded, scaring the heck out of all of us. Egg was plastered all over the inside of the oven.

It took a while for us to learn how to use our new toy, but once we caught on we used it often. We no longer baked much of our food, we “nuked” it. I used to have friends and even dates that wanted to come home just to see our magic oven. For a while it made me kind of popular. None of us really knew how this new-fangled gizmo worked; like I said, it was magic to us. It was still several years before radar ovens became commercially available to the general public.

Years later, I was standing on the bridge of my Navy ship when they lit off our radar array and I watch in horror as it instantly fried a seagull perched on it. I remind you that these are the same kind of microwaves that we used daily in our kitchen.

The Microwave range was developed by the Nazis during World War II to efficiently feed their troops. The Soviets studied it extensively from the beginning and actually outlawed it in their country in the mid-1970s. Of course, on the other hand, well over 90% of American homes now have and use them daily. So this leads us to ask certain questions. How do Microwave ovens work? Are they good for us? Bad for us? And since I frankly don’t know anyone that doesn’t have a microwave oven now that they’ve become so cheap and convenient, can we live without one?

Microwaves use electromagnetic energy that violently attacks the natural polarity of water molecules causing friction that in turn creates heat. The uneven distribution of water in foods is the reason that there are often hot and cold spots. There’s no doubt that microwave ovens are convenient, but at what cost? Again, are they good or bad?

First, the good: they are fast and convenient. That’s pretty much it. Now for the bad.

1. Decreases the food value by 60–90%. Russian research showed that broccoli lost 97% of its antioxidant content, whereas steaming only decreased it by 11%.
2. Causes an alteration and disruption of the formation and function of hormones.
3. Disturbs brain function, impacting concentration and memory.
4. Diminishes the function of the immune system.
5. Damages the eyes, making them more susceptible to conditions like cataracts.
6. Causes changes to heart physiology and rhythm.
7. Increases carcinogens in all foods that are microwaved.
8. Creates unknown substances called Radiolytic Compounds and science still hasn’t uncovered their full effect on the human body.
9. Transforms living foods into dead matter.

It has been determined that literally every radar oven leaks microwave energy. That, coupled with cell phones, TV, transmission towers, and computers, surrounds us in microwave smog. This smog has a cumulative effect and the body becomes increasingly more sensitive over time. It’s clear that we should avoid electromagnetic energy as much as possible.

The overwhelming body of evidence indicates that it’s not only what we eat that is important, but how it is prepared. Raw is best, conventionally cooked is next, and “nuked” is the worst.