Issues with Microwaves

Often, I'll see Paleo/Primal/ or generally healthy recipes that call for the use of a microwave.... However, I honestly feel that the use of the microwave completely negates the purpose of buying fresh, organic, healthy food. I just wanted everyone's feedback on the use of microwaves. Am I alone in completely refusing to use a microwave or have one in my home?


[url=http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6463.cfm]Microwave Ovens Destroy the Nutritional Value of Your Food[/url]

Here's an article that I've found to support my distaste for instantly irradiating my food :)

That article doesn't link to a single study, and neither does [url=http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/health-hazards-to-know-about/microwave-ovens-the-proven-dangers]this article[/url] from the comments.

I'd love to see a study! Claims are cool, but claims require proof.

[url=http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2012/08/the-role-of-the-catalyst-2-2455886.html]Studies Show Microwaves Drastically Reduce Nutrients In Food | Alternative[/url]

Here's a bit of science for ya.

We have one. My wife uses it to heat pita bread. Beyond that, it is (not) useful for taking up counter space.

I don't know if it causes any harm, but it seems fairly useless. The only time I've ever had one was when it came built in with a condo I bought. At the time, I still ate popcorn (and apparently the bpa on the inside of microwave popcorn bags), so I used it for that. I tried warming up coffee in it and it tasted really bad. And it didn't really boil water for tea any faster than a pot on the stove.

So, not specific to primal, I just don't have any use for one.

As a note, I had a part time job where we warmed up pastries in one. I once put a cockroach in it for 30 seconds and the cockroach walked out unfazed. But that's more an "Ew, one more reason to hate cockroaches," thing than a microwave thing.

My house has been microwave free for about 3 years now. I personally think they poison our food and help kill us slowly so I refuse to have one. We have a stove and an oven and we do just fine. Now when some friends came to live with us they acted like it was the end of the world. They only lasted a month and a half at our house and they said they just didn't know what to do without a microwave. I had some family visit a few weeks ago and my husband's grandmother just kept insisting that I just warm it up in the microwave. I had to tell her about 20 times that we don't have one before she got it. And then asked why not, and tried to give me money to buy one. But I like not having one.

Yeah, not only does having a microwave make food bad for you, but it makes things just waaaaay too convenient. Why do I need an entire pizza to go from frozen to ready to eat in like 5 minutes? I think it causes the majority of people to be accustomed to eating the very second they get hungry. Not only are they not waiting to eat a real, home cooked meal, but they're reaching for packaged things that have absolutely no nutrition.

The thing that bugs me the most, though, is when I see recipes for things like cauliflower rice, and it tells me to pop the cauliflower into the microwave, or a paleo bread recipe says to toss it in the micro oven for x seconds. The whole point of primal is to have whole, cooked, from the earth meals. Irradiating your food is NOT primal, even if you dd buy the organic, local, non GMO veggies from the farmers market. You're just ruining it and wasting your money! Agh. Rant over...

If my microwave broke down I would be out to purchase one that day. In fact I might even be preemptive and buy a spare one in case the aforementioned day does ever arrive because I'd be lost without one.

[QUOTE=Cierra;1104995][url=http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2012/08/the-role-of-the-catalyst-2-2455886.html]Studies Show Microwaves Drastically Reduce Nutrients In Food | Alternative[/url]

Here's a bit of science for ya.[/QUOTE]

Cooking in itself destroys nutrients. The upside is that increases the bio availability of others, and you get to eat cooked food.

My understand of how microwaves work is the microwaves interact with water molecules, making them spin, this increase in kinetic energy of the water molecules is transfered to other molecules in the food. Another way of describing increased movement of molecules is heat.

I fail to see how this is any differenet for any other method of heating food, and I didn't see anything in that artical that addressed that issue.

I don't use one much, but there are times when it is useful, for example I'll steam a portion of veg in a little water in a glass container, or heating up left-overs.