December 23rd 2008 - We live in a society that wants something and wants it now, whether that is food or something else. I am very aware of this as I have grown up in this culture. Don't have time to make the food? Well, better either head to the fast food restaurant or throw something in the microwave.
To quote Christopher Gussa, he believes "that the general obesity in this country, the lack of energy, and increased cancer along with all the new “designer diseases” i.e. Erectile Dysfunction etc. can be traced in part to our habit of using microwave ovens as the 'lazy man's way out of a little extra work'."
I am sure most people at one time or another have put something in the microwave to see what would happen with it. Perhaps it was the well-known microwaved egg that blows up after awhile. Well, the byproduct of heating pretty much anything in the microwave is carcinogens. Even briefly heating vegetables in the microwave--even ones that have already been cooked--will create carcinogens. Carcinogens help create cancer.
If one is cooking food in one of those plastic microwaveable containers, or using plastic wrap, those will also allow carcinogens to be produced. One of the main carcinogens with foods that have fat is dioxin, which is very hard on the body, as the body is not easily able to get rid of it. Another byproduct of plastics in the microwave is xenoestrogens, which help cause low sperm counts in men and breast cancer in women. The food being microwaved with the plastic tends to absorb these toxins.
It is known that microwaves cause a break down in the protein chains, and that would even include one's own DNA and RNA, if you hang around a microwave enough. But, even food ingested after being heated in a microwave will decrease haemoglobin levels, causing one to show symptoms of anemia and will increase one's white blood cells and cholesterol. Microwaved food also affects the immune system by decreasing the number of lymphocytes in the body, but increasing the number of leukocytes, which means your body believes there is something very harmful there. And, it could be the compounds formed from microwaved foods. These compounds are called radiolytic compounds and are not even found in nature. One of those radiolytic compounds is known as 2-DCB. Scientists found that it damaged the DNA in the colons of rats, as reported in Tom Valentine's article.
There is a common story reported in many of the articles that I read concerning the microwave, and the Relfe article is one that has it. A woman named Norma Levitt was having hip surgery in Oklahoma in 1991. The nurse heated the blood for a transfusion in a microwave. They normally heat blood for transfusions, just not in microwaves. Norma died from this transfusion.
So, do I believe one should use a microwave? My answer is absolutely, "No." From my own experience, I know a family that always uses a microwave. The grandmother, mother, and daugher all ended up with thyroid cancer. Medical science could probably point to something or other, but in my opinion, it was all the microwaved food they ate, and the exposure to all the microwave radiation.
The human body is absolutely amazing and can handle a lot of stress in the various forms it comes in to keep us healthy. Now, if we can just simply take a few more minutes to make our food, and be healthier, then why would we not do that? Let us get rid of our microwaves.
Timothy A Mast
1406 Falcon Dr
Louisville, KY 40213
United States
Stephanie Relfe, Alexander Timoshik, Tom Valentine, Claire Nelson and Christopher Gussa