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Is your microwave safe?
6th June 2008
Okay, I hold up my hands.
'PLEASE DON'T SHOOT!'
After last Friday's Good Life Letter ('Beat
indigestion, ulcers and MRSA with this old
wives' secret') I got a volley of shots fired at
me for one of my comments.
They twanged at to the left of me... to the right
of me.... kicking up the dirt.... I saw a man run
from a grassy knoll.
I took refuge, but they kept coming. BANG!
BANG!
Today I'm still ducking for cover. But if you
give me a chance to come out and explain,
I'm happy to.
My hands are up. Look!
Why I stoked the fires of controversy
If you remember last Friday's email, I was
talking about the health benefits of manuka
honey from New Zealand.
(If you missed it, this is all on my site,
www.goodlifeletter.co.uk. Type 'honey' into
the search box and the two most recent
articles will have all the info you need.)
Anyway, at the end of the letter, I suggested a
way you could soften honey when it
crystallised. My recommendation was to pop
the jar (without the lid) into the microwave.
That's when the emails started coming in,
thick and fast.
Here's a typical one:
'Lovely newsletter on manuka honey, but you
spoiled it at the end by advising people to put
the honey in a microwave to get rid of
crystals. That same microwave will get rid of
many of the beneficial aspects of the honey
that you earlier waxed lyrical about.
I'd like to see you retract the advice in a later
newsletter after looking into the harmful
effects of microwaving food.'
And yes, looking back on it, I agree that I
could have offered some better advice.
Namely, if you want to warm honey, you
should place the jar inside a pot of hot water
and allow it to slowly melt that way.
There's no need to use a microwave at all.
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To be honest, I saw the microwave tip online
and added it without thinking too deeply.
But inspired by the many emails questioning
my implicit support for the microwave, I
thought I'd look into it properly.
Are microwaves healthy? A damning
Swiss verdict...
Back in 1992 two Swiss food scientists, Hans
Hartel and Bernard Blanc, studied the effects
of microwaving food.
They took a group of volunteers and tested
their blood. Then they tested their blood again
after eating raw milk and raw vegetables... or
the same foods conventionally cooked... or
the same foods microwaved.
Hartel and Blanc found that the microwaved
food had a negative effect on the blood.
- There was a drop in white blood cell
count
- There was more LDL ('bad')
cholesterol in relation to HDL ('good')
cholesterol.
- The cell membranes were altered so
that they allowed a higher risk of
invasion by bacteria, fungi and viruses
According to health journalist Sandra Tonn,
the two scientists were kept quiet through the
use of trade laws and the courts.
She says:
'Two years after the study's completion the
Swiss Federal Court confirmed a conviction
against the researchers, who were fined and
threatened with imprisonment.'
So they touched a nerve, then!
Because of the legal threats and lack of
funds, there have been very few tests into
microwaves.
This is why it's hard to prove that they're
definitely safe, or definitely unhealthy.
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The microwave accusers say that....
- The minerals in vegetables, when
microwaved could be altered into
cancerous free radicals
- The human body cannot break down
the by-products created when you
microwave food.
- Male and female hormone production
may be altered by eating too many
microwaved foods too often.
- The nutrient level of food is reduced or
altered in the microwave so you don't
get the benefits of what you're eating.
- Microwaved foods could perhaps
cause stomach cancers.
- Eating too many microwaved foods
might cause immune system
deficiencies
- Too much microwaved food could
cause memory loss, instability, and
lower intelligence.
There you have it from the anti-microwave
brigade.
To give you my tuppenceworth...
Don't panic, find an alternative
Nobody has yet proved that microwaves are
unhealthy. And as you know, I'm not a
scientist or a doctor.
For this reason, I'm wary of jumping on any
terrifying bandwagons of doom, or getting my
backside sued so hard I'll never ride my
bicycle again.
However...
My instinct is that conventional cooking is a far better option.
While the jury's out on the cancer risk of
microwaves, it wouldn't surprise me at all if
microwaves lowered or altered the nutrient
level in food. The 1992 study certainly seems
to suggest that.
And in the world of The Good Life Letter we
can't have that! It's all about more nutrients, not fewer! |
So to wean you off your microwave...
Here are three handy tips...
- Defrost packaged food by putting
some water in a saucepan, then
heating it up. Put the packet in, close
the lid and let the steam defrost the
food. Then cook it in a convection
oven.
- If you want to defrost meat or non-
packet food, get it out the day before
and defrost it in the fridge. Just takes
a bit of forward planning.
- To warm up leftovers, or food for a
late comer, put the plate on top of
saucepan of simmering water. Put a
lid over the food to stop it drying out.
I hope this gives you some food for thought.
Sorry I didn't think more carefully about this
when I was writing about manuka honey last
week.
The thing is, I was getting so excited about
the honey, I couldn't stop to think.
By the way, if you want to order some
manuka honey to try at home, here's the best
website to get the really good stuff from:
www.greenbayharvest.co.uk
I'll be back with something on Sunday that
has NOTHING to do with honey at all, I
promise! |
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