-92
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] falkerie71@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'll save everyone a click to this bullshit pseudo-science website and put this archive link (from 2011!) here instead. And since I'm bored, I'll give it quick fact check why not. I may very well also be wrong, so you're all welcome to fact check the sources too!

What may have started as a nutritious plate of food has now evolved into “dead food” due to the dielectric heating of microwaves. “They bounce around the inside of your [microwave] oven and are absorbed by the food you put in it,” writes Dr. Joseph M. Mercola. The water molecules rotate rapidly in the microwave and in the food in high frequencies which creates molecular friction and heats up your food. This causes the molecular structure in your food to change, and as a result diminishes the nutrient content in the food.

Link just goes to Dr. Mercola's homepage website, a pseudo-science website written by someone who is known for dubious scientific claims, not even an article. (Side note, I find it funny that mercola's website URL has been excluded from Wayback Machine)
And are the water molecules bouncing or rotating? The article can't seem to make up its mind about it. And what does it mean by "changing the molecular structure in your food"? Seems like an extremely sensational way to say "the nutrients broke down", which by the way, tends to happen when you cook stuff, microwave or not. In fact, studies show that due to the shorter length of time microwaves need to heat up food, they tend to damage the nutrients the least. Boiling vegetables also robs them of some of their nutritional value because the nutrients leach out into the cooking water.

Microwaves Destroy Breast Milk And Vitamin B-12

If you're going to claim microwaving is bad, then at least also say if heating up via other methods would preserve the nutrients. The article and the study it links to does not say. Not dunking on the original study of course, but this is just a textbook way of spinning a study into something that they didn't claim in the first place.

When you head foods that are wrapped in plastic in the microwave, you can create carcinogens in the food. Based on Russian research and German studies, the Russian government issued a warning [...] says Foodbabe.

Yeah no shit. You're eating melted plastic. Same happens if you put plastic on the stove and eat food from it. No links to the research and studies, link to the Russian gov warning is to Mercola, and foodbabe is also a pseudo-science website. And why would anyone claim a study but put a link to another website and not cite the original source is beyond me.

Microwaves Can Change the Makeup of Your Blood: In a Swiss clinical study, researchers found that... The eight participants in the study ate a series of food...

The link to the study is to huffpost, not an actual study paper, and the article has since been removed by them. Looking at the archived webpage, it was written by Mercola again. The claims in the article itself isn't that different to this one, I'd say it's even more entertaining, including terms like Radiolytic Compounds and Biophotons.
It did say that there were 8 participants, but it also said that it was a significant downside that there was ONLY 8 participants, including the researcher himself, and that his methodology did not stand up to the scientific rigors of the field.

Microwaves can produce effects on your body instantly due to the 2.4 GHz radiation

Link to article is broken/taken down, even in internet archive. So let's look up Dr. Magda Havas and her study instead. This article sums it up quite good. Her Ph.D is in botany, not medical nor EE. And an article also pointed flaws in her tests. She did do a follow up research, but I still seriously doubt the credibility of it. Providing statistics of people who are sensitive to EMI by just asking them, and then place a 2.4Ghz source straight on their chest to test their heart rate, doesn't seem like a great way to test their claims.

[-] cloudless@feddit.uk 9 points 1 year ago

Even more fact checking to debunk the pseudo-science:

We simply don’t know the long-term effects of radiation, so why risk it by watching your food cook in your microwave day after day and night after night?

Microwave radiation does not have any long-term effects on your health or food quality. Microwave ovens use non-ionizing radiation, which does not damage cells or DNA. Microwave radiation is also contained within the oven and does not leak out. Therefore, there is no risk of watching your food cook in your microwave.

https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/what-to-microwave-ovens-health

Tissues directly exposed to microwaves are subject to the same deformities molecules go through, and this can in turn cause you to experience “microwave sickness”. Remember, it isn’t just microwave ovens which emit this kind of radiation.

Microwave ovens do not expose tissues to microwaves, as they are shielded and contained within the oven. Microwave ovens use non-ionizing radiation, which does not cause deformities in molecules or cells.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26556835/

Microwaving food, in effect, potentially destroys and depletes the life energy, rendering the food completely dead and lifeless. In addition, the food’s nutritional value is lost and it becomes nearly useless in terms of providing any real health benefit.

Microwaving food does not affect its nutritional value negatively, as long as it is cooked properly and with minimal water. In fact, microwaving food can preserve some nutrients better than other cooking methods, such as boiling or frying, because it reduces the exposure to heat and water.

https://www.drberg.com/blog/do-microwaves-actually-lower-your-nutrients-in-food

Vitamin C in asparagus spears was lost during a 1999 Scandinavian study.

This is not unique to microwaving, as any cooking method that involves heat and water can have the same effect. In fact, microwaving food can preserve more vitamin C than boiling or frying, because it uses less water and shorter cooking times.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/microwave-cooking-and-nutrition

Microwaving Food Leads to a Negative Impact on Human Physiology & the Heart

The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, which issued a press release in 1992 stating that Hertel’s study was not scientifically valid and that there was no evidence that microwaved food was harmful to health.

[-] falkerie71@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Very nice 👍

load more comments (4 replies)
this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
-92 points (3.1% liked)

General Discussion

11946 readers
1 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy.World General!

This is a community for general discussion where you can get your bearings in the fediverse. Discuss topics & ask questions that don't seem to fit in any other community, or don't have an active community yet.


🪆 About Lemmy World


🧭 Finding CommunitiesFeel free to ask here or over in: !lemmy411@lemmy.ca!

Also keep an eye on:

For more involved tools to find communities to join: check out Lemmyverse and Feddit Lemmy Community Browser!


💬 Additional Discussion Focused Communities:


Rules

Remember, Lemmy World rules also apply here.0. See: Rules for Users.

  1. No bigotry: including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
  2. Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
  3. Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘silly’ questions. The world won’t be made better by dismissive comments to others on Lemmy.
  4. Link posts should include some context/opinion in the body text when the title is unaltered, or be titled to encourage discussion.
  5. Posts concerning other instances' activity/decisions are better suited to !fediverse@lemmy.world or !lemmydrama@lemmy.world communities.
  6. No Ads/Spamming.
  7. No NSFW content.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS