Are Microwave Ovens Safe?
In the last 30 years Microwave Ovens have almost replaced traditional methods of cooking. Now over 90% of American homes have microwave ovens used to “mic” their meals. Because microwave ovens are so convenient and energy efficient, (compared to conventional ovens) very few homes or restaurants are without them.
In our fast-paced , fast-food lifestyle, we want everything Now. But what do we really know about them? How do they work? Do they leak Radiation? Is Microwaved Foods safe?
How do Microwave Ovens work? The microwave radiation produces heat inside the food in the oven. Heat is produced when the water molecules in the food vibrate (at a rate of 2,450,000,000 times per second) when the food absorbs the microwave radiation. The movement of the molecules produce friction which causes heat. This heat cooks or warms up the food.
Radiation Ovens? (Killer Convenience) Do They Leak Radiation?
In Dr. Lita Lee's book, Health Effects of Microwave Radiation - Microwave Ovens, and in the March and September 1991 issues of Earth letter, she stated that every microwave oven leaks electro-magnetic radiation, harms food, and converts substances cooked in it to dangerous organ-toxic and carcinogenic products. Further research summarized in this article reveal that microwave ovens are far more harmful than previously imagined. (Lee, Lita, "Microwaves and Microwave Ovens," 14 May 2001)
Studies also show that foods quick cooked with radiation microwaves, causes harmful toxins chemicals to leach out of plastic containers and plastic wraps. (Wall Street Journal, 12 Oct 1998)
Microwave heating of the products led to the release of potentially harmful amounts of BPA. “There is no such thing as safe microwaveable foods. (Frederick vom Saal, a University of Missouri to the Journal-Sentinel)
Bisphenol A, (BPA) a chemical toxin that affects neural and reproductive development, is present in some popular plastic baby bottles and low doses of the chemical are linked to cancers, early puberty, obesity, and diabetes.
Radiation, as defined by physics terminology, is "the electromagnetic waves emitted by the atoms and molecules of a radioactive substance as a result of nuclear decay." Radiation causes ionization, which is what occurs when a neutral atom gains or loses electrons. In simpler terms, a microwave oven decays and changes the molecular structure of the food by the process of radiation. Had the manufacturers accurately called them "radiation ovens", it's doubtful they would have ever sold one, but that's exactly what a microwave oven is.
We've all been told that microwaving food is not the same as irradiating it (radiation "treatment"). The two processes are supposed to use completely different waves of energy and at different intensities. No FDA or officially released government studies have proven current microwaving usage to be harmful, but we all know that the validity of studies can be - and are sometimes deliberately - limiting.
If Microwave Ovens were really harmful, our government would never allow them on the market, would they? ….would they?
Recent work being done at the University of Warwick in Great Britain warns that microwave radiation is damaging to the magnetic activity of human life vibrations. Over 20 years ago Russia established microwave radiation limits 1000 times more stringent than in the United States and Great Britain.
Is Microwave Foods Safe?
The Russian investigations published by the Atlantis Raising Educational Center in Portland, Oregon. Carcinogens were formed in virtually all foods tested. No test food was subjected to more microwaving than necessary to accomplish the purpose, i.e., cooking, thawing, or heating to insure sanitary ingestion. Here's a summary of some of the results:
a) Microwaving prepared meats sufficiently to insure sanitary ingestion caused formation of d-Nitrosodienthanolamines, a well-known carcinogen. b)Microwaving milk and cereal grains converted some of their amino acids into carcinogens c)Thawing frozen fruits converted their glucoside and galactoside containing fractions into carcinogenic substances. d) Extremely short exposure of raw, cooked or frozen vegetables converted their plant alkaloids into carcinogens.
E) Carcinogenic free radicals were formed in microwaved plants, especially root vegetables. Decrease in nutritional value.
Russian researchers also reported a marked acceleration of structural degradation leading to a decreased food value of 60 to 90% in all foods tested. Among the changes observed were:
A)Deceased bio-availability of vitamin B complex, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics factors in all food tested.
B) Various kinds of damaged to many plant substances, such as alkaloids, glucosides, galactosides and nitrilosides.
C) The degradation of nucleo-proteins in meats
A Swiss study found food that is microwaved is Not the food it was before. The microwave radiation deforms and destroys the molecular structure of the food- Creating radioactive compounds. When microwaved foods are eaten, abnormal changes occur in the blood and immune systems. These include a decrease in hemoglobin and white blood cell counts and an increase in cholesterol levels. An article in the journal Pediatrics warns that microwaving human milk damages the anti-infective properties it usually gives to a mother’s baby.
Microwaved blood kills patient In 1991, there was a lawsuit in Oklahoma concerning the hospital use of a microwave oven to warm blood needed in a transfusion. The case involved a hip surgery patient, Norma Levitt, who died from a simple blood transfusion. It seems the nurse had warmed the blood in a microwave oven. This tragedy makes it very apparent that there's much more to "heating" with microwaves than we've been led to believe. Blood for transfusions is routinely warmed, but not in microwave ovens. In the case of Mrs. Levitt, the microwaving altered the blood and it killed her. It's very obvious this form of microwave radiation "heating" does something to the substances it heats. It's also becoming quite apparent that people who process food in a microwave oven are also ingesting these "unknowns".
Scientific Evidence and Facts
In Comparative Study of Food Prepared Conventionally and in the Microwave Oven, published by Raum & Zelt in 1992, at 3(2): 43, it states
"A basic hypothesis of natural medicine states that the introduction into the human body of molecules and energies, to which it is not accustomed, is much more likely to cause harm than good. Microwaved food contains both molecules and energies not present in food cooked in the way humans have been cooking food since the discovery of fire. Microwave energy from the sun and other stars is direct current based. Artificially produced microwaves, including those in ovens, are produced from alternating current and force a billion or more polarity reversals per second in every food molecule they hit. Production of unnatural molecules is inevitable. Naturally occurring amino acids have been observed to undergo isomeric changes (changes in shape morphing) as well as transformation into toxic forms, under the impact of microwaves produced in ovens.
One short-term study found significant and disturbing changes in the blood of individuals consuming microwaved milk and vegetables. Eight volunteers ate various combinations of the same foods cooked different ways. All foods that were processed through the microwave ovens caused changes in the blood of the volunteers. Hemoglobin levels decreased and over all white cell levels and cholesterol levels increased. Lymphocytes decreased. Luminescent (light-emitting) bacteria were employed to detect energetic changes in the blood. Significant increases were found in the luminescence of these bacteria when exposed to blood serum obtained after the consumption of microwaved food."
The Swiss clinical study
Dr. Hans ulrich Hertel, who is now retired, worked as a food scientist for many years with one of the major Swiss food companies that do business on a global scale. A few years ago, he was fired from his job for questioning certain processing procedures that denatured the food.
In 1991, he and a Lausanne university professor published a research paper indicating that food cooked in microwave ovens could pose a greater risk to health than food cooked by conventional means. An article also appeared in issue 19 of the Journal Franz Weber in which it was stated that the consumption of food cooked in microwave ovens had cancerous effects on the blood. The research paper itself followed the article. On the cover of the magazine there was a picture of the Grim Reaper holding a microwave oven in one of his hands.
Dr. Hertel was the first scientist to conceive and carry out a quality clinical study on the effects microwaved nutrients have on the blood and physiology of the human body. His small, but well controlled, study showed the degenerative force produced in microwave ovens and the food processed in them. The scientific conclusion showed that microwave cooking changed the nutrients in the food; and, changes took place in the participants' blood that could cause deterioration in the human system. Hertel's scientific study was done along with Dr. Bernard H. Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the university Institute for Biochemistry.
With love, Diana
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