Microwave yes or no? ?

wi_denisha · August 2017

I was on a program where I was brainwashed and one of the things that they said is to get rid of my microwave which I did and put it in the garage. I haven't had microwave food in 4 months. I was taught or told rather that the microwave takes all the nutrients out of your food and is very bad for you.
My question is do you use the microwave or not and how do you feel about microwaving your food nutrition wise does it take the nutrition out of the food or not??

TavistockToad · August 2017

i use a microwave for porridge, peas, sweetcorn or probably once or twice a week... and the odd microwave meal, once a month maybe.

the only feelings i have for or against it is that its convenient for cooking those things i have mentioned above....

amusedmonkey · August 2017

Microwaves basically make foods "boil" from the inside in their own water. Logically, how would that "remove" nutrients?

Fun fact: since microwaves usually involve shorter cooking time than conventional cooking methods, it's kinder to any nutrients that are often affected by heat, and since the food is self-contained, the nutrients that are prone to leaching out into cooking liquid happily stay in the food.

Microwave away. Glad you've left that program.

deannalfisher · August 2017

I microwave stuff at least once a day - either warming up my lunch (because cold steak sucks); making vegetables for dinner (so much easier to nuke a potato for 5min, then cook in the oven for 45)...no harm to me yet

TR0berts · August 2017

wi_denisha wrote: »

... I was taught or told rather that the microwave takes all the nutrients out of your food and is very bad for you...

Quite simply, you were either outright lied to or those telling you this had no clue what they were talking about. It's complete fiction.

ninerbuff · August 2017

I use the microwave pretty daily. Especially when I have to reheat some food I cooked earlier in the day.

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skymningen · August 2017

I don't own a microwave, but I heat up pretty much every lunch at work in one. The "nutrient killer microwave" came up once during lunchtime. We are a bunch of scientists... we kind of tore this myth apart together in a flurry. Ah, fun times.

rankinsect · August 2017

It's true that certain foods lose nutritional value when cooked (and others gain nutritional value) but the microwave is typically not worse - and often better - than other cooking methods.

Whether you like the flavor and texture of microwaved food is another issue entirely of course.

cs2thecox · August 2017

I use my microwave loads.
Once you realize that it can kind of focus the rays in the middle of the plate, and you remember to spread things out (even making a well in the middle if you like) to get them to heat evenly, then it's literally one of the most useful things in the world.

RachelElser · August 2017

the microwave doesn't affect nutrition like that. It affects textures and flavors, sure, but not the nutrition. I use it often.

Need2Exerc1se · August 2017

I only use the microwave for heating things (tea, frozen vegetables, leftovers, etc.) I don't use it for cooking. Not because it destroys all the nutrients, but because I don't like what it does to the texture of most foods. Any method of cooking/heat destroys some nutrients, but it makes some more available, and it does nothing to others.

singingflutelady · August 2017

OT but this reminds me of 2 epic mfp threads. This one http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/694311/please-stop-microwaving-your-food/p1

And the microwave death box one but that one was deleted.

Lounmoun · August 2017

wi_denisha wrote: »

My question is do you use the microwave or not and how do you feel about microwaving your food nutrition wise does it take the nutrition out of the food or not??

I have not had a microwave for maybe 8 years now after a lifetime of using them.
Two microwaves broke in a short amount of time. I decided I didn't need to dump money into another one to clutter up my kitchen to heat up water or leftovers. Food tastes better reheated on the stove or oven. I don't really miss using one. I'm not afraid of them.
I don't think microwaves destroy nutrients more than other forms of cooking.

Need2Exerc1se · August 2017

Noel_57 wrote: »

Cool - if microwaves take all nutrients out of food, that would include calories. I'm stocking up on pepperoni Hot Pockets.

Calories are not nutrients.

snickerscharlie · August 2017

I love my microwave. Not just for the time saving aspect of it, but also for the fact that it uses a lot less electricity than the stove or oven and doesn't heat up the kitchen in the summer.

Having said that, there are a few foods I will not re-heat in the microwave because it changes the texture - pizza is a good example of this. It kinda gets rubbery and the crust isn't crust-y.

And I agree that it doesn't make any sense that microwaving food would reduce its levels of nutrients over 'conventional' methods.

@wi_denisha - curious as to where this brainwashing took place.

amusedmonkey · August 2017

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

Noel_57 wrote: »

Cool - if microwaves take all nutrients out of food, that would include calories. I'm stocking up on pepperoni Hot Pockets.

Calories are not nutrients.

Without macronutrients there are no calories. You're onto something there, Noel.

cwolfman13 · August 2017

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/do-microwaves-zap-nutrition#1

The Verdict: If you do it right, cooking food in the microwave is one of the best ways to retain your food's vitamins and minerals

There are dangers to microwaving your food. You could get scalded, for one. If you use the wrong kind of plastic (hint: one that doesn't say "microwave safe"), unhealthy chemicals could seep into your food. But if you’re concerned about getting the most nutrition out of your eats, microwaving is a safe bet. In fact, it's near the top of the list for nutritionally sound food-preparation methods. If you use your microwave with a small amount of water to essentially steam food from the inside, you’ll retain more vitamins and minerals than with almost any other cooking method.

“Whenever you cook food, you’ll have some loss of nutrients,” says registered dietician and certified food scientist Catherine Adams Hutt, RD, Ph.D. "The best cooking method for retaining nutrients is one that cooks quickly, exposes food to heat for the smallest amount of time and uses only a minimal amount of liquid."

Guess what? Microwave cooking does that.

Consider spinach. Boil it on the stove, and it can lose up to 70 percent of its folic acid. Microwave it with just a little water, and you’ll retain nearly all its folic acid. Cooking bacon on a griddle until it’s crispy (yum) can create nitrosamines, while microwaving bacon creates far fewer of these cancer-promoting chemicals.

kimny72 · August 2017

I feel like this was a big thing in the 1980's before being wholly debunked. Around the same time we had one of those little plastic cards that you passed over the door seams on the microwave to make sure it wasn't leaking radiation at you.

I use the microwave often. As others have said there are some things they work great for and other things they destroy the texture of. Even if the removing nutrition thing were true, it would only matter if you were nuking a lot of your food.

This was just published last week, which I guess means you are not alone in asking this:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/microwave-cooking-and-nutrition

finny11122 · August 2017

I love cooking and turning a bunch of ingredients into something amazing . Only proper cooking techniques can get those great results . You want top quality food , you got to put in the time and effort .
Cutting open a preservative laden ready meal and dumping it into a microwave is not exactly healthy eating .

Microwave yes or no? ?

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