Microwave Ovens & Healthfulness Of Microwaved Food

Microwave ovens do have benefits. They are certainly convenient. They are more energy-efficient than other cooking methods. But are they safe? And do they produce food that contributes to the health of our bodies?

If you choose to use a microwave oven, Consumer Reports magazine suggests you stay as far as possible from the oven while it is in operation.In addition, operate and maintain the oven in ways that minimize leakage:

• make sure the oven door closes properly
• prevent damage to hinges, latches, sealing surfaces and the door itself, and make sure these are in good working order
• make sure no soil or food residues accumulate around the door seal
• avoid placing objects between the sealing surfaces.

If heating formula in a microwave can cause it to lose vitamins and protective properties in breast milk to be destroyed, then it can do the same to the foods we eat. While the effects may not be immediately observable, a regular diet of microwaved food may have long-term health consequences.Advocates of microwaved food claim that it is healthier because it retains vitamins, but the University of Minnesota disagrees:I personally have never had a microwave oven in my own kitchen and am finding that it had been difficult to get people to give up their microwave ovens. Some of the generation who grew up with microwave ovens apparently don't know any other way to heat food (really!).While there is not enough evidence to require warning labels on microwave ovens, or to remove them from the market, there is concern both about the safety of our exposure to microwaves and the healthfulness of microwaved food.So how do restaurateurs by-pass this problem and present a well cooked meal before their clientele decide to take their trade elsewhere or pass out through starvation? Quite commonly the secret will involve meals being prepared prior to cookery, and frozen. Defrosting and cooking with a microwave oven is the key to this process.For peace of mind, test your oven for leakage. Testers can be purchased online.My own microwave oven at home is nowhere near so elaborate but still finds it ways to cook me some fantastic dishes. Scrambled egg is probably the easiest of these; simply break a couple of eggs into a microwave safe dish, whip them up and add a dash of milk or water. Cream cheese such as Philadelphia will make your scrambled egg taste deliciously creamy. For something extra special, you can try adding some cheese or herbs. Next, place these within the microwave. Cooking times will differ depending how powerful your microwave oven is and the size of the food, but I usually start with an initial thirty second burst, followed by 15 second intervals. At each of these breaks I quickly scramble the eggs again with a fork. The whole process only takes a couple of minutes, but don�t forget to stop and whip the eggs up at regular times or you may find a hardened plastic lump, rather than a delicious, fluffy, creamy tasty meal.Safety tips for using microwave ovensTwo Swiss researchers found that microwave cooking changes food nutrients significantly. Blood samples taken from eight individuals immediately after eating microwaved food revealed, among other things, an increase in the number of white blood cells--often a sign of poisoning.You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.Basically, when choosing a space saving microwave oven you need to decide how often you are likely to use it and for what. You also need to decide whereabouts you want to site it and how much you can afford to pay for your new microwave. Most of the microwave ovens in the other categories offer similar facilities to these compact microwave ovens - the only real difference being where they are sited. If you decide on a convection microwave oven you are looking at a slightly large space requirement but, for cooking more elaborate meals and incorporating a browner and crisper finish to your food, this might be a better option for you - despite them being slightly more complicated to use.At the top end of the microwave oven range, and one of the newer models available, is the 1.2 cubic foot built-in microwave oven from GE. This microwave oven, the SCB2000FWW retails in the region of $1,751.00. How important to you is the microwave oven in your kitchen? Do you use it to cook meals from scratch, or just for re-heating the occasional ready-meal from your freezer? In the past I have cooked a full roast dinner for a family of six in my microwave oven - not through choice, I grant you, but I had the builders in and it was all I had available! However, on saying that, the food was delicious and all the family approved so I must have been doing something right - albeit, I did use a slightly more expensive compact microwave oven that offered heating capacity up to around 1200 watts.I used to have one of these microwave ovens and, while I agree to them being an ideal space saving microwave option, the technophobe in me never quite figured out how to fully use all the options I had paid for when I bought the convection oven. Truly, the choice is yours - decide how you want to use it, where you want to site it and how much you want to pay: those are the basic options available to you in your search for the perfect space saving microwave oven - and, of course, if you are like me, make sure you know how to use all the features available on the model you finally choose!I quite like microwave cooking and have found easier, cleaner and healthier ways to cook a variety of simple meals, starting with scrambled eggs for breakfast and rice for dinner. However, the microwaves used in commercial situations differ somewhat to the everyday appliances commonly found sitting in your kitchens at home. For one thing, a commercial variant will be lot larger, capable of heating large numbers of meals at the same time. It is also likely that this won�t act solely as a microwave; microwave convection ovens combine the traditional blistering heat of a standard oven with the speed and efficiency of the radio-wave counterpart. This means you can cook food quickly and still have it crispy, negating the drawback that prevents many home users from using their microwaves for meals such as jacket potatoes were a crispy outer layer is highly desired. So many different types of food can be cooked in this manner ranging from breads and cakes through to roast dinners.

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Author: Debra Lynn Dadd