12 Microwave Oven Myths You Shouldn't Believe
Miscellaneous / / February 16, 2022
It's time to find out if these devices are friendly with smartphones and how much harmful radiation they produce.
Myth 1. Microwaves destroy nutrients in food
Many are sure that even the most healthy breakfast will lose all its properties after cooking in a microwave oven. After all, these very waves destroy the “molecular structure” of products and vitamins in vegetables and fruits!
But in fact, cooking in the microwave is even healthier than on the stove or in the oven. claimMicrowave cooking and nutrition / Harvard Health experts at Harvard Medical School.
Many nutrients are indeed destroyed by prolonged exposure to high temperatures. But in the microwave oven, food areAsk the doctor: Microwave's impact on food / Harvard Health not as long as in a frying pan, because the microwave heats up the food faster.
So the effect is actually the opposite: the microwave will retain more nutrients.
Scientists at the University of Colorado dispelledMicrowave heating of foods — changes in nutrient and chemical composition / CRC Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
myth about the harmfulness of food from the ovens. They found that microwaves affected food in exactly the same way as traditional heating methods. Moreover, experimentally confirmedN. Turkmen. The effect of cooking methods on total phenolics and antioxidant activity of selected green vegetables / Food Chemistrythat cooking in it preserves more of the antioxidants in peppers, pumpkin, green beans, peas, leeks, broccoli, and spinach.The microwave oven also allows you to save moreZ. Zia-ur-Rehman. Effect of microwave and conventional cooking on insoluble dietary fiber components of vegetables / Food Chemistry intestinal-friendly insoluble dietary fiber in cabbage, carrots, eggplant, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, spinach and turnips than baking and boiling. And the researchers of the Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Healthy Nutrition in Murcia, Spain, establishedF. Vallejo. Phenolic compound contents in edible parts of broccoli inflorescences after domestic cooking / Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculturethat water-cooked broccoli loses more nutrients than microwaved broccoli.
In general, the microwave preserves the beneficial properties of vegetables better than a frying pan and pan, but worse than a double boiler.
Myth 2. Looking into a running microwave is bad for your eyes.
Another bike from the Internet: if watchHow Bad Is It To Look Into The Microwave While It's On? /SELF in a microwave oven, when it heats food, you can earn cataracts and blindness. No, really, did you see that ominous yellowish glow coming through the window?
By allegationsMicrowave Oven Radiation/FDA From the US Food and Drug Administration, two organs of the human body are particularly vulnerable to microwaves - the eyes and testicles. But any radiation that can harm you remains inside the microwave chamber: it is reliably shielded by the grid and the case.
To really damage your eyesight, you need to make the microwave work with the door open. And manufacturers constructively limit this possibility.
Looking at your monitor is potentially more dangerous than looking at a microwave. No, not because it emits microwaves or radiation: it's just that if you stare at one point for a long time, it leads to eye strain.
So don't neglect exercises and take breaks if you stare at the screen for a long time. Or the microwave.
Myth 3. Microwaved water kills plants
Back in 2006, an American schoolgirl conducted an experiment for a science fair. She boiled two servings of water: one in the microwave, the other on a conventional stove. The plant that the girl wateredMicrowaved Water - See What It Does to Plants / Snopes.com water from the microwave oven, soon wilted. And the flower, which received the “ordinary” liquid, felt great.
From this, the girl concluded that "the structure or energy of water can be disturbed by microwaves."
However, this is all nonsense. The team of the popular site Snopes, which specializes in exposing various hoaxes, repeated the experiment. And it turned out that the plants absolutely indifferentMicrowaved Water - See What It Does to Plants / Snopes.comwhat water they are watered with - boiled on the stove, in the microwave or not heated at all.
A microwave oven is not able to affect any "memory" of water (which is actually No) or destroy the "energy" in it. It can only heat up the liquid - that is, do the same thing as a regular stove, just faster.
Myth 4. Microwave destroys food DNA
One more thing about the schoolgirl who watered the plants with microwave water. In the viral text about the experiment, the girl's parents addedMicrowaved Water - See What It Does to Plants / Snopes.com from himself that the microwave “spoils the DNA of food so that the human body cannot recognize it.” And at the same time they condemned mothers who warm up baby food in such devices.
In fact, the microwave really destroys genes - if you bring the temperature of the food to 100 ° C. When this number is reached, the protein will begin denatureC. b. Anfinsen. Principles that Govern the Folding of Protein Chains / Science and the hydrogen bonds between the DNA bases will break. But your stomach is absolutely indifferent to what the genetic code of the tomato you eat is.
Tomato genes will be cleaved by hydrochloric acid in gastric juice anyway, so it's not clear why you should worry about them.
Doctors microwaved even blood for emergency transfusions bringIndicators of Erythrocyte Damage after Microwave Warming of Packed Red Blood Cells / Clinical Chemistry to the temperature of the human body, and nothing.
Several cases are known where careless handling of the oven led to complications in patients, but not because the device "destroyed DNA». It's just that microwaves sometimes raise the temperature of the blood too quickly or too unevenly, leading to hemolysis - damage to red blood cells. Therefore, doctors usually preferP. L. Leaman. Microwave warming of resuscitation fluids / Annals of Emergency Medicine slower heating procedures.
Myth 5. People with a pacemaker should not keep a microwave oven at home.
This is not true. According to dataPacemaker implantation / NHS British National Health Service NHS and the British Heart Foundation to avoid electromagnetic interference that can damage the pacemaker, it is enough to be away from the microwave 15 centimeters.
That is, if a person with heart disease does not hug a working stove, nothing bad will happen to him.
But with induction cookers you need to be careful. Safe distance for them isPacemaker implantation / NHS at least 60 centimeters, so you have to cook at arm's length.
Myth 6. Harmful radiation leaks from microwaves
When some people hear that "radiation" is used in microwave ovens, they imagine something related to radiation, nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons, and therefore dangerous. But the microwaves used in microwave ovens do not ionizing properties and cannot make objects radioactive.
The stove in your kitchen is structurally incapable of producing either x-rays or gamma rays.
And in order for it to really harm you, you will have to disassemble it, turn off the blocking systems and make it work with the door open. Then put your hand in the oven, turn on the magnetron and wait a minute. In this case, he will begin to warm you up like a pizza and you earnRadiofrequency (RF) Radiation / American Cancer Society skin burn.
A kitchen microwave is not capable of inflicting really serious injuries. The power of a household magnetron is simply not enoughRadiation: Microwave ovens / World Health Organizationto get under the skin and affect the internal organs.
In general, if you use the microwave in accordance with the instructions and do not plan to disassemble it, there is nothing wrong with it or with you. will not happenMicrowave Oven Radiation/FDA.
Myth 7. Microwave food causes cancer
As mentioned above, microwave radiation is not1. Interaction of Radiation with Matter / HyperPhysics,
2. Ionizing radiation, health effects and protective measures / World Health Organization ionizing. That is, it is not able to knock out electrons from atoms, creating ions, does not damage the DNA of cells and does not violate the mechanisms of their division. Which means can notM. frei. Chronic exposure of cancer-prone mice to low-level 2450 MHz radiofrequency radiation / Bioelectromagnetics lead to cancer and especially radiation sickness.
The energy of the microwaves is transferred to the polar molecules and causes them to move faster, which leads to an increase in the temperature of the food. But the radiation of the microwave oven is completely converted into thermal energy and is not stored in the dish after it is removed from it.
Also it unableIonizing radiation, health effects and protective measures / World Health Organization accumulate neither in products nor in the chamber, like radiation. It is more appropriate to compare microwaves with the light of a light bulb: as soon as the device is turned off, they disappear.
Myth 8. Microwave ovens heat food from the inside
Many people believe that during microwave operation, heat radiates from the inside of the food to the outside. This explains the uneven heating of, say, pies and other baked goods.
You put a bun with jam in the microwave oven, heated it up, and took it out. It feels a little warm to the touch, but if you bite, it burns the palate. Naturally, the bun was heated from the inside, wasn't it?
This is not true. Microwaves at 2.45 GHz can only penetrate most foods aboutMicrowave technology. Penetration Depths / Pueschner one or more centimeters. The numbers vary depending on the contents of the microwave oven, but the device cannot heat the dish from the inside. It affectsMicrowave Oven Radiation/FDA on the outer layers of the product, and from them the deeper ones are already warming.
Why, then, does food often get so hot inside? This happens when the filling is more moist than dough. Water is a better conductor of heat than a dry shell, and the temperature of the inside of the loaf rises more.
Myth 9. Microwave sterilizes food
This is not entirely true. Microwave radiation is not an x-ray, it does not have a sterilizing effect and can only heat things. But if you bring food in the oven to a temperature above 100 ° C, most of the microbes will die.
True, some microorganisms can survive as spores during heat treatment. So the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendDisinfection & Sterilization Guidelines / CDC play it safe and sterilize objects at 150 °C for 150 minutes.
But household microwave ovens are not designed for such operating modes.
Research conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showDisinfection & Sterilization Guidelines / CDCthat it is still possible to use a microwave for sterilization, however, with special precautions and in the presence of a large amount of water.
But still: it is not recommended for doctors to process medical devices in microwave ovens, since it will be difficult to ensure uniform heating. The good old boil is better and more practical.
In general, use the microwave for its intended purpose, not to fight germs. And be careful if you try boil there is water in it. The liquid can imperceptibly cross the boiling point without bubbles, and when you inadvertently move the dishes, it will splash out and cause burns.
Myth 10. In the USSR and Japan, microwave ovens were banned.
On the Internet, you can find statements that until the 90s, microwave ovens were banned in the Soviet Union. Allegedly, their harm was known for a long time, and the caring state protected Soviet citizens from this infernal machine, invented in the decaying West.
In addition, rumors are circulating on social networks that microwave ovens have been banned in Japan as of 2019 or 2020. And anyone who does not dispose of the damned gaijin car in time is threatened with imprisonment.
Both of these tales are absolute fiction.
The Soviet Union not only did not ban microwave ovens, but also producedSoviet microwave ovens / Back in USSR them independently since at least the 70s. For example, the models "Electronics", "Dnepryanka", "Pluto", "Mriya", "Volzhanka" and others. The fact that not every Soviet family had them was the result of a shortage, not a legislative ban.
In Japan, no one seizes microwaves either. Rumor about it appearedDid the Japanese Government Ban Microwave Ovens? / Snopes.com thanks to the well-known satirical site Panorama, which referred to a non-existent Japanese newspaper, and was picked up by both Russian and foreign publications. The news reached all the way to Japan and was refuted「日本では2020年に電子レンジが廃止される」海外で広まっている噂の真相は? / ニコニコニュース local media.
Myth 11. You can put your smartphone in the microwave to avoid surveillance
To avoid listening by the secret services, in the film "Snowden» Phones were put in the microwave. Some experimenters on the Internet have tried to repeat this trick. And were surprised that their smartphones continued acceptIn the movie Snowden, phones are put in microwaves to block signals. This does not work / Reddit calls even inside the microwave oven.
From this, the conclusion may follow that microwaves do not shield any radiation and irradiate us without a twinge of conscience with all sorts of harmful radiation.
But actually using microwave to block a cell signal is stupid. The fact is that the furnace magnetron workingMicrowave oven / Britannica at a frequency of 2450 MHz, and it is from such waves that the shielding system of its case and the mesh on the door protect us.
But a cell phone operates on other frequencies. For example, in Russia the numbers varyHow frequencies are divided between MTS, Beeline, Megafon and Tele2 in Russia / CNews from 900 to 1800 MHz depending on the operator. But the Wi-Fi waves will not leave the microwave oven, because the case shieldsWifi Microwave: Why Do Microwave Interferes With Wifi? their.
And yes, at least since 2005, an ancient bikeCan you charge your smartphone in the microwave? / Buy Mobilesthat phones can be charged in a working microwave. Don't do it. Maybe the device will not explode, but it will easily fail. And the microwave oven will break.
Myth 12. Do not put plastic utensils in the microwave
And this is partly true. Some types of plastic can release carcinogens into food when heated. substancesK. Bhunia. Migration of Chemical Compounds from Packaging Polymers during Microwave, Conventional Heat Treatment, and Storage / Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety.
Therefore, only containers that are suitable for use in the microwave oven are not containingIs plastic a threat to your health? / Harvard Health lead, bisphenol A or phthalates. Such containers labeledIs It Safe to Microwave Plastic? Answering Common Safety Questions About Plastics Food Packaging / ChemicalSafetyFacts a special icon indicating that they can be placed in a microwave oven.
And if you don’t want to bother and look for markings, it’s better and more practical to shift food into ceramic or glassware, and that’s it.
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