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Most households have a microwave, but there are still skeptical people because they fear that food quality and health will suffer. Is this the case?
Like most technologies, microwave ovens were developed to simplify our lives by reducing the amount of work we have to do (it’s best to avoid quite popular mistakes while using them). However, several people believe that using a microwave removes vitamins and nutrients from food. But isn’t the use of microwaves dangerous?
How do they work?
Microwaves, whose cable does not belong in multiple sockets, use the radiation of the water molecules in the food to heat it. The process is much more complex, of course, as this explanation on the Harvard Medical School website explains:
“Microwave ovens cook food using energy waves. These waves are remarkably selective, acting primarily on water and other electrically asymmetric molecules. Microwaves cause these molecules to vibrate and quickly generate thermal energy (heat).”
This process can affect the vitamins and nutrients in food, but the same is true for any heat preparation process.
What’s the verdict?
Something similar happens to proteins through a process known as “denaturation.” Not to be confused with the literal meaning of “taking away the naturalness of something,” this means the breakdown of proteins.
As with vitamins, exposure of most proteins to heat leads to this process, not just microwave heat. Studies have shown that the nutrients leak out into the cooking water when vegetables are cooked, eventually thrown away. Harvard on this:
“The most nutrient-preserving cooking method cooks quickly heat food for as short a time as possible and uses as little liquid as possible. The microwave meets these criteria. The microwave is a marvel of technology, a miracle of convenience – and sometimes nutritionally beneficial.”
- source: gentside.de/picture: hp
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