Done with the Microwave

Is microwaving food hazardous to your health?

I think I might be done with the microwave.  Shocking, I know; I mean how did people ever survive without them?!  It’s funny, because for years my family teased my eccentric grandmother (God love her) who was afraid that her microwave in her apartment was sending out radioactive ways.  Maybe she wasn’t too far off…

So here’s how I arrived at my microwave stand-off:  Since avoiding foods to which I have allergies, I have felt remarkably better.  Occasionally, however, I still get sick.  When I do get sick, I try to pay close attention to what I did differently that could be the culprit.

One pattern that I noticed in getting sick was that I tended to always feel bad after eating leftovers.  It made no sense!  I could eat an allergen free food one night; then I would have it as a leftover the next day, and it would make me sick.  I couldn’t figure out what changed my reaction between 7pm one day and 12pm the next day.

My initial hypothesis was that something was chemically changing in my leftovers.  And given my sensitivity to yeast, I figured there must be a bacteria that was causing me problems.  This was a real issue, because it is always a bit of a challenge to find lunch food I can eat when there are no leftovers available.

I recently reached a new hypothesis, however, after stumbling upon this article: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2010/03/dangers-of-microwave-cooking/.  In particular, this article makes mention of  microwaves rupturing the cell walls of the food.  Is it possible that the ruptured form of the food is perceived as an invader to my body to the point that my body throws a histamine reaction, so I won’t eat it again?

Well for the last several days now I’ve been heating my leftovers in the oven and have felt much better! I’m going to continue my experiment to be sure, but regardless, I’m going to go microwave-free as much as possible from now on.  And really everything heats up in about 10 minutes on 350 degrees.  I’m lucky I work from home, so my oven is readily available.  If you’re at work, perhaps a toaster oven would be a more convenient solution.

If you think I’m crazy just look at the difference in these plants being fed regular water versus microwaved, cooled water over a week: http://execonn.com/sf/, and that’s what we do to our bodies multiple meals a day.  Do you think it is possible that  all of us  are not receiving the full nutritional value of our foods, because we’re consuming their nutritionally depleted, genetically modified, and then ‘ruptured’ versions of their natural counterparts?  I’m not a scientist, but I think there’s a chance…