For all of microwave ovens’ pros, they’ve also faced a fair amount of criticism—thanks perhaps to fearmongering that’s spread through rumors, chain emails, and even popular media. Some claim microwave cooking could damage the nutrients in our food; others have brought up how the ovens expose us and our food to radiation. Some even believe they can cause cancer. Much as we all love convenience, we also tend to be skeptical of whether it comes at the cost of anything else—and especially whether that ‘anything else’ involves our health.
Photo by Unsplash/Gentri Shopp
Here’s the deal on microwaving food.
First of all, what are microwave ovens?
Life isn’t easy when you’re a busy working professional juggling a bajillion tasks every single day, and let’s face it—the last thing you wanna do after a long day at work is cook from scratch. Enter microwave ovens, which you could just about call modern-day superheroes. The appliance makes reheating a breeze, requiring much less time than traditional ovens—a real godsend when it’s 12 noon, your stomach’s rumbling, and you’ve got a meeting to attend in 15. Add to that the fact that frozen or microwaveable meals and snacks are everywhere these days and you’ve got a kitchen companion that most of us would deem practically indispensable. No wonder more than 90 percent of U.S. households today own the appliance.
You probably use your microwave at least once a day, but how does the appliance actually work?
We begin with the fundamental concept of a microwave. These waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation—that is, a type of energy made up of waves of electric and magnetic energy that move together through space.
With microwave ovens, an electron tube called the magnetron produces microwaves, which then get reflected in the metal within the oven and absorbed by food. The microwaves make the water molecules in your food vibrate, producing heat. As the outer layer of food warms up, the conduction of heat outside also cooks inside of the food—breathing life into your frozen or chilled meal and making it all the more enjoyable to eat, in just minutes.
As they’re able to carry out this heating process quickly, microwave ovens can be a more energy-efficient option when it comes to reheating food. They’re also generally compact—you can likely fit one into your kitchen, no matter how tight your space—not to mention affordable.
Is microwave cooking really bad for us?
In the 2013 film American Hustle, Rosalyn Rosenfeld—a character played by Jennifer Lawrence—famously blows up a microwave, then proceeds to call it a “science oven” and claims it “takes all the nutrition out of food,” supposedly following an article she read by a certain Paul Brodeur.
This famously led to the filmmakers being sued by the real-life Brodeur, a journalist who has, in fact, written about microwave hazards in the past, but not the made any claims of the sort the movie tells us. Still, many folks in the real world continue to believe that microwave cooking can damage nutrients, making it less optimal than conventional steaming, baking, or sautéing.
Thing is, pretty much all methods of cooking alter—in many cases reduce—nutrient value, depending on factors like the temperature and cooking time. But because microwave ovens are able to cook food quickly with low temperatures, microwaving is actually one of the cooking methods least likely to destroy nutrients. This is a point backed up by a number of studies, including one from 1982 that found no significant differences in vitamin retention between microwave and conventional cooking, and one from 2009 that showed how microwave cooking is among the cooking methods that led to the least loss of antioxidants.
In some cases it may even enhance the benefits of certain foods—for instance, a 2019 study showed how steaming and microwaving broccoli can increase its flavonoids as compared to when it’s boiled. And because microwave cooking doesn’t heat up as much as, say, a regular oven does—temperatures don’t usually go beyond 212°F or 100°C—it can even keep harmful compounds from forming in certain foods. An example is bacon: a 1989 study found that heating the processed meat in the microwave produced the least nitrosamines (compounds formed when nitrites get heated excessively) compared to other cooking methods.
Now we do know that microwave ovens employ radiation, specifically electromagnetic radiation—but can this contaminate food? The short answer is no. Food does, in fact, absorb microwave energy—but because it uses non-ionizing radiation (i.e., radiation that can move atoms in a molecule, but not remove electrons), it can’t actually tamper with your food’s chemical makeup.
And as for whether that radiation can directly harm us and our bodies, there’s no evidence to support that either. Microwave ovens today are designed with safety in mind—for example, they can only make microwaves when the door is closed, and those microwaves stay within the confines of the oven. Plus, US federal standards have limits on the amount of radiofrequency radiation that can leak from a microwave oven—which is well below what would cause us any harm. Even if radiation did leak out, it’d still be of a level too low to cause harm to us, and for as long as you’re purchasing your appliance from a reputable brand, you should be safe.
So How Should We Actually Eat?
With all these points in mind comes the million-dollar question: how should we actually eat for optimum health and longevity? It’s worth taking a page from author and entrepreneur Ramit Sethi on personal finance; unrelated as it might sound at the onset, his insights on big wins can also be applied to your body’s health.
Sethi emphasizes the importance of big wins versus the minutiae—that is, instead of focusing on details that are relatively miniscule in impact, it makes more sense to focus on the few important things that make a big difference in the long run. In this case, those big wins would be the consumption of whole foods, portion control, and eating mostly plants (a wide variety of them)—as opposed to jumping to nitpicking small details like whether you’re microwaving your veggies.
As we’ve seen, nuking your food doesn’t make it unhealthy and might even be a better option than other cooking methods in some cases, as the fast cooking time lets the food retain more nutrients or even help keep harmful compounds from forming. And nope, radiation doesn’t contaminate the food. Overall, the microwave is a great tool to have in the kitchen that lets you heat food in just minutes—it’s all about choosing the right foods in the right amounts.
Nutrition can seem unendingly complicated, with all the different variables around—macros, meal timing, cooking methods—that can affect the health-giving qualities of what we eat. All valid points, folks. But you can at least rest assured that the microwave isn’t the enemy. Nail the basics of eating high-quality whole foods, balanced portions, and ample plant variety, and you’ll be well on your way to feeling happier and healthier overall.