Health101.org
presents
The
Hazards of Microwaving Your Food
By Don Bennett, DAS
To nuke or not to nuke,
that is the question. This article will attempt to acquaint you
with some facts about microwaving food.
Research shows that food cooked in a microwave oven suffers molecular damage. When eaten, it causes abnormal changes in human blood, and in the immune system. Not surprisingly, the public has seen very little information on these significant health dangers... Microwave ovens are big business.
I remember when no one I knew had a microwave. And now these same people wonder how they ever got along without one. A better question is: How will you "get along" with one?
Back in May of 1989 there was a radio announcement sponsored by Young Families, the Minnesota Extension Service of the University of Minnesota, that said, "Although microwaves heat food quickly, they are not recommended for heating a baby's bottle... Heating the bottle in a microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In infant formulas, there may be a loss of some vitamins. In expressed breast milk, some protective properties may be destroyed." The deleterious effects of microwaving food were known over a decade ago.
In early 1991, there was a lawsuit in Oklahoma that revolved around a woman, Norma Levitt, who underwent hip surgery. She didn't survive the operation because she was given a blood transfusion with blood that had been heated (a common practice) by a nurse who used a microwave instead of the usual heating technology. So evidently microwaving does do something to organic matter other than just heating it.
Hans Hertel is the first scientist to conceive of and carry out a quality study on the effects of microwaved nutrients on the blood and physiology of humans. In the spring of 1992 this small but well-controlled study showed conclusively the degenerative force of microwave ovens on food heated in them. The conclusion was clear: Microwave cooking altered the food's nutrients so that changes took place in the participants' blood. And these were changes that could cause deterioration to a human being's physiology. These changes included a decrease in all hemoglobin and cholesterol values, especially the HDL ("good cholesterol"). "There is extensive scientific literature concerning the hazardous effects of direct microwave radiation on living systems." Hertel said.
Leukocytosis is a rise in white blood cell (leukocyte) count. Leukocytes increase in response to foreign invaders, and are often a sign of pathogenic effects on the living system, such as poisoning and cell damage. In this study, the increase of leukocytes with the microwaved food was more pronounced than with all the other variants (foods cooked in a convection oven). It seems these increases were caused entirely by consuming microwaved substances.
The waves in your microwave are based on the principle of alternating current. Molecules in food hit by this electromagnetic radiation are forced to reverse polarity 1 to 100 billion times a second. There are no atoms, molecules, or cells of any organic matter able to withstand such a violent force for any extended period of time.
The oxygen in water molecules reacts most sensitively to the radiation. This is how the heat in a microwave is generated; water molecule friction! In doing so, molecular structures are torn apart and deformed, becoming impaired in both quality and function.
In addition to frictional heat effects (thermic), there are also athermic effects. Hertel said about these, "Athermic effects are not presently measurable, but they can also deform the structures of molecules, and have qualitative consequences. For example, the weakening of cell membranes by microwaves is used in the field of gene altering technology. Because of the force involved, the cells are actually broken, thereby neutralizing the electrical potentials - the very life of the cells - between the outer and inner sides of the cell membranes. Impaired cells become easy prey for viruses, fungi, and other micro-organisms."
Besides the destruction and deformation of food molecules, there's the formation of new compounds (radiolytic compounds) that are unknown to man, and more importantly, unknown to Nature. Their affect on your body can be only one of three things: good, bad, or neutral. Personally, I haven't found anything on this planet that has absolutely no affect on the body one way or the other (neutral), so logic dictates that these radiolytic compounds are either good for us, or bad for us. Which do you think they are?
"If you wanted to introduce a herbal supplement into the American mainstream and make any health claims for it, you would be subjected to exhaustive documentation and costly research. Yet the microwave-oven industry had only to prove that the dangerous microwaves could be contained within the oven, and not escape into the surrounding area where the radiation could do damage to people. So far, not one thought has been given by the industry to the possibility that the nutrients could be so altered as to be deleterious to human health." - Acres, USA
Additionally, microwaving food wrapped in plastic, plastic coated paper, or foam causes dioxins and other carcinogens, and xenoestrogens to migrate into the food which can then affect the cells of our body.
Don't wait for government or industry to address this issue... take charge of your health! And if you need more incentive to relegate your microwave oven to just the heating of a hot towel, remember: The more uncooked, fresh foods you eat (fruits and veggies), the better your health will be. But if you must heat food, do as little damage to it as possible, so that you do as little damage to you as possible.
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Microwaved Water - See What it Does to Plants!
Thanks to Marshall Dudley of Knoxville, TN for sharing his granddaughter, Arielle Reynolds', experiment with us. Both Arielle's mother, Christina, and Grandpa have much to be proud of. Congratulations, Arielle, well done!
"Below is a sience fair project that my granddaughter did for 2006. She took filered water and divided it into two parts. The first part she heated to boiling in a pan on the stove, and the second part she heated to boiling in a microwave. Then after cooling, she used them to water two identical plants to see if there would be any difference in the growth between the plant using water boiled on the stove, and the plant using water boiled in a microwave. She was thinking that the structure or energy of the water may be compromised by microwaving. As it turned out, even she was amazed at the difference."
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 Two already existing plants from the same "crop" now being watered with the two different waters |
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The
Dangers of Microwave Cooking
From Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients
Cooking in a microwave oven is not safe. Atoms, molecules and cells are hit by the hard electromagnetic irradiation of microwaving reverse polarity over one billion times a second. Even in the low energy range of milli-watts, no atom, molecule or cell of any organic system can withstand such destructive power.
Molecules are forcefully deformed, their quality impaired. The electrical potentials between the outer and inner side of the cell membranes – the very life of the cells – are neutralised. Natural repair mechanisms are suppressed; and cells, forced to adapt to a state of emergency, switch from normal aerobic to anaerobic (without oxygen) respiration. Instead of water and carbon dioxide, this fermentation produces hydrogen peroxide and carbon monoxide. The newly formed radiolytic compounds are unknown to man and nature; the impaired cells become easy prey for viruses, fungi, and other micro-organisms.
Microwaving destroys some nutrients and turns some amino acids into carcinogens. Established science and government claim all this doesn’t hurt people eating irradiated food; but neither scientists not governments ever tested their claims.
Dr. Hans Hertel of Germany did the first and only, small but well controlled study of the effects of micro-waved nutrients on the blood and physiology of humans. The blood of those who consume micro-waved food for two months showed pathological changes compared to matched controls eating food cooked with heat. The changes included a decrease in all haemoglobin values and deterioration in cholesterol, especially the HDL and LDL (high and low density cholesterol) values and ratio. Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct short term decrease after the intake of micro-waved food than after normally cooked foods.
Moreover, warming breast milk in a microwave oven destroys 98% of its immunoglobulin A antibodies and 96% of its liposome activity, reducing the milks resistance to infectious E.coli.