Please stop microwaving your food

Total, complete and utter nonsense. Microwaves work on the principal of exciting the electrons in water molecules. They do not change the structure in any way, they simply cause the molecule to vibrate, generating friction, which, in turn, causes heat. The more water in a substance heated in a microwave oven, the more quickly it will heat. A microwave oven will not irradiate food or alter it's structure in any way. The originator of this thread and anyone who believes this nonsense is an idiot deficient in basic scientific literacy. If you don't believe me, consult www.snopes.com, or ask your local high school science teacher.

Ok..please answer this. what is causing the exciting of electrons is water? And whatever source you provide for this excitement..How does it know to only excite the electrons in water and not the electrons in the molecules that make up the food?
And please.. If am required to post peer reviewed sources for my position, then please do the same. Snopes is not peer reviewed.

http://www.rps.psu.edu/probing/microwave.html

Here's another http://suite101.com/article/how-do-microwave-ovens-work-a35365

Wow.. truly.. I didn't mean for this to start a big argument or for people to be rude to others or myself. I completely fine if you disagree with me but there is no need to be disrespectful to me or anyone else.

If you don't agree and love using the microwave.. then by all means...

But why enter a thread to bash someone else? Why not just ignore and move on to something else that interests you?

(I believe bashing and to disagree are two different things)

I think if you had stated it as opinion then people may not have been 'bashing'. It's because you're trying to state it as fact that people have got annoyed. As one poster said you could find articles and studies that support both sides of the argument. Unless the evidence is overwhelming either way then there is no fact. Only opinion. You are of course entitled to have an opinion as is everybody. Just don't try and tell people that what they're doing is wrong based on something that hasn't been substantiated.

The OP is trolling.

If she isn't then she should feel bad. Microwaving is the second best way of retaining nutrients bar steaming. Stop spreading lies.

I steam veg in my microwave?

Wut?

In which chapter in my A&P textbook will I find this information? Because I certainly did not find any information in my A&P Course 1 or my class on Basic Nutrition I just finished taking.

You truly have to be an idiot if you nuke water to the point of explosion. truly. **And didn't read the directions!** I never said it couldn't happen.

I don't know... it can happen in less than a minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FcwRYfUBLM
Superheated water doesn't look like it's that hot, because it doesn't boil like normal.

Personally, I've never seen it happen first hand. But I don't think a person has to be an 'idiot' to have science happen accidentally in their microwave. :flowerforyou:

I exploded a chicken hot dog in the microwave once.

Bwahahahaha I love it! The other day it was aspartame making people fat, then soda, then carbohydrates, fat, and now the microwave. You people are ALL MISINFORMED picking your nose too much makes you fat. You see theres an accupressure point inside your nasal cavity and when pushed you will start eating like a hippo and want to eat a trough of food. Only cure eat extra beans and broccoli and try to fart it out. Trust me it works

So if freezing kills nutrients, then why do they say frozen fruits are the best to eat to prevent cancer because they are picked off the vine and sent directly to the freezer? They say the fruits and vegs lose their potency when they are immobile and it's better to freeze because it holds the nutrients longer.

These two ideas are *not* contradictory. Just because freezing destroys fewer nutrients than storage and shipping does not mean that it does not destroy any nutrients. Ideally, we'd eat plants right after they were picked, but since this isn't an option for most of us, flash freezing is probably better in many respects than cold storage. For fruit and veggies, it may be useful to think of it this way:
right off the plant > flash frozen > shipped/stored > canned > none at all.

I don't mean to be rude but I just can't understand how some people didn't know microwaves were really bad... it's radiation people. What did you expect?

That being said, I'm sure if you have to use it on occasion, it can't be *that* bad for you.

uh huh. The radiation produced by a microwave oven is non-ionizing. I does not have the cancer risks associated with ionizing radiation

damn! you beat me to it

I don't mean to be rude but I just can't understand how some people didn't know microwaves were really bad... it's radiation people. What did you expect?

That being said, I'm sure if you have to use it on occasion, it can't be *that* bad for you.

uh huh. The radiation produced by a microwave oven is non-ionizing. I does not have the cancer risks associated with ionizing radiation

Yeah it's on the same frequency as TVs and phones. Anything more would destroy your food.

I don't mean to be rude but I just can't understand how some people didn't know microwaves were really bad... it's radiation people. What did you expect?

That being said, I'm sure if you have to use it on occasion, it can't be *that* bad for you.

Hmmm. Light is radiation. Microwaves are a kind of radiowave. Radiowaves are radiation and they are everywhere. If your microwave oven is properly functioning an in good condition there should be very little, if any, radiation affecting you. Microwaves directed right at you wouldn't be too good on a regular basis, but they're not supposed to be able to escape from your microwave oven. I'd be more worried about the x-rays and CT scans I've been exposed to in my life and the background radiation. I grew up within a few miles of two nuclear power stations and I'm still healthy. If microwave ovens were that bad, we wouldn't have them any more. What about mobile phones? HT power cables? I think as long as you are sensible in life, there are worse things to worry about. If you have too much exposure to something then maybe it's time to worry

I think the problem with older microwave ovens is that it was very easy to overheat certain areas of the food, which isn't too good for the food, and not heat other areas quite so well. Newer ovens are much better at providing even heating. Yes, perhaps it is better to heat in other ways, or eat fresh, but I certainly don't think it's time to panic just yet!

I haven't used a micro wave oven in 3 years. I moved to a new place, and didn't have one. And I put a tv in my kitchen so I can watch my stories when I am cooking. But the tv takes up the spot where the micro wave should go. So I just never got one. And I'm cheap so unless someone gives me a hand me down I'm not buying one because its just not necessary. That being said, I really don't miss the micro because I have a toaster oven. Generally the food comes out way better. Like leftovers and stuff. They don't taste like leftovers at all. The only time I sort of miss the microwave is when I want popcorn because its a pain to make on the stove. But not impossible and it tastes better too. Can't say i am afraid of using it or think its bad, but I have heard about the plastic potentially being a problem. But anyway, I am a freak without a microwave and don't miss it. It is possible to live without one. But for me to be afraid of the radiation or whatever is silly, I think the tv in my kitchen is more of a threat.

Oh no!

I need my microwave to boil my eggs in. What am I going to do????????

I use the microwave to boil spaghetti. But, I guess I shouldn't be eating that, though, because carbs make you fat. Ignore the fact that I've lost 23 lbs.

:laugh:

Total, complete and utter nonsense. Microwaves work on the principal of exciting the electrons in water molecules. They do not change the structure in any way, they simply cause the molecule to vibrate, generating friction, which, in turn, causes heat. The more water in a substance heated in a microwave oven, the more quickly it will heat. A microwave oven will not irradiate food or alter it's structure in any way. The originator of this thread and anyone who believes this nonsense is an idiot deficient in basic scientific literacy. If you don't believe me, consult www.snopes.com, or ask your local high school science teacher.

Ok..please answer this. what is causing the exciting of electrons is water? And whatever source you provide for this excitement..How does it know to only excite the electrons in water and not the electrons in the molecules that make up the food?
And please.. If am required to post peer reviewed sources for my position, then please do the same. Snopes is not peer reviewed.

http://www.rps.psu.edu/probing/microwave.html

Here's another http://suite101.com/article/how-do-microwave-ovens-work-a35365

http://www.livestrong.com/article/421142-health-concerns-with-the-use-of-infrared-heat-to-cook-food/

Please take note of the peer review journals sources throughout the article and at the bottom.

This is the first paragraph of one of the "references" that you are talking about at the bottom of your article.
"The effects of five domestic cooking methods, including steaming, microwaving, boiling, stir-frying, and stir-frying followed by boiling (stir-frying/boiling), on the nutrients and health-promoting compounds of broccoli were investigated. The results show that all cooking treatments, except steaming, caused significant losses of chlorophyll and vitamin C and significant decreases of total soluble proteins and soluble sugars. Total aliphatic and indole glucosinolates were significantly modified by all cooking treatments but not by steaming. In general, the steaming led to the lowest loss of total glucosinolates, while stir-frying and stir-frying/boiling presented the highest loss. Stir-frying and stir-frying/boiling, the two most popular methods for most homemade dishes in China, cause great losses of chlorophyll, soluble protein, soluble sugar, vitamin C, and glucosinolates, but the steaming method appears the best in retention of the nutrients in cooking broccoli."

That says all heating of broccoli causes loss of various nutrients. It actually says stir frying is the worst loss whereas steaming has the least loss of nutrients.

The other article sites about heating of milk isn't referring to microwaves that we use in our homes it is talking about pasteurization of milk and how the heating processes used create cholesterol in milk. http://www.pjbs.org/pjnonline/fin265.pdf
Yes there is one or 2 little sentences in there about how people use microwaves in their kitchens but the experiment they are conduction is on the pasteurization process. Sorry to tell you but ALL milk in the US is pasteurized. It is required by law, even organic milk is pasteurized. The only way you would get milk that is not pasteurized is to know someone on a farm with a cow selling it under the table.

The only reason I posted the 2 articles I did is because I did not feel like scanning the pages from my physics book about how water molecules behave with electromagnetic waves and why, then uploading the scanned pages into photobucket, and then linking them here. Besides the 1 article does have a resource - Bloomfield, Louis A., How Things Work The Physics of Everyday Life, Wiley, 1997. Textbooks are peer reviewed, otherwise they would not be able to be adopted as textbooks.

The other article is a Penn state article. I didn't post them to prove that microwaves were bad or not. I posted them because you asked how microwaves excite water particles and not other particles in food. Those were both good explanations of that. Its the same things that both of the physics books I have say in regards to electromagnetic waves and their effects on dipoles or polar molecules. Modern Physics 4th Edition by Paul A Tipler and Ralph A Llewellyn and Fundamentals of Physics Sixth Edition by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker.