Thanks for taking the time to clear this up so logically, Irene! I was about to look with even more suspiciou on my microwave which I mostly use for heating anyway.
For years, we have used Corningware for microwave reheating since it is glass and presumably safer than any plastic. We use saucers to cover bowls in microwave or vice versa. Never any plastic wrap or any purchased containers no matter how “safe”!
Sure do hope our US Congress regulates that ghastly fake popcorn smell chemical that permeates my husband’s office and the elementary school office where I go to volunteer and that is apparently causing bronchiolosis (?) in those who produce it and consume a lot of it—not consuming the popcorn, apparently, but inhaling the vapor when it is popping in the microwave or producing the chemical. There was a program on NPR last week about a man who ate so much microwaved popcorn (breathing the cooking vapors each time) that he developed the same serious problem as the factory workers who work with the chemicals.
Popcorn (the simple, inexpensive kind in the plastic bag at grocery stores) can be “air-popped” amazingly well in a clean recycled brown paper bag. I wonder whether there is any health objection to that.
Teresa (Northern VA, USA)
Microwave cooking heats food.
Microwave cooking and health issues
-
Irene de Villiers
- Posts: 3237
- Joined: Sat Aug 02, 2014 10:00 pm
Re: Microwave cooking and health issues
Teresa Kramer wrote:
Hi Teresa,
You are welcome - I was lucky in a way when I first started using
microwave cooking. It was law in South Africa that if you sold a
microwave you had to also offer free lessons including samples of actual
cooked food, as part of the purchase.
So everyone found ouit about toxicity from cookware, and how long
to cook in order not to overcook and how to arrange food and all that.
It makes a HUGE difference - and means that microwave cookware is in
every home in South Africa - it's terribly hard to find here in the USA!
I dunno if they still have that policy in SA - I was there in the late
80s when this was the case. They also taught you for example how to keep
the magnetron opening clean (makes it last longer and work effectively)
- something else never mentioned here in USA, even in the instruction
book with a microwave purchase. At least not with my last one:-)
I cooked - not just reheating - for my family in a micro and now would
not be without one.
Corningware Glass is good, so is pyrex glass.
There are special microwave plastics made, but you need to get them from
a reputable manufacturer not some fly-by-night foreign outfit that has
made a look-alike without knowing the technology.
Good cooking often needs good sealing so I do not use corningware, it
leaks like a sieve and you lose a lot of flavour.
I like the cooking bags (like oven cooking bags but I import microwave
ones that are a little different from SA or Australia) and the microwave
specific ware if you can ever find it. Nordicware is a good brand.
Here are some others on a quick google:
http://www.kitchenemporium.com/info/22_ ... oking.html
And here's the popcorn maker I use, I just love it!
http://www.kitchenemporium.com/cgi-bin/ ... 60120.html
Not always good. The saucers can be stoneware with lead in the clay.
Yes isn't that horrible!
Namaste,
Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."
Hi Teresa,
You are welcome - I was lucky in a way when I first started using
microwave cooking. It was law in South Africa that if you sold a
microwave you had to also offer free lessons including samples of actual
cooked food, as part of the purchase.
So everyone found ouit about toxicity from cookware, and how long
to cook in order not to overcook and how to arrange food and all that.
It makes a HUGE difference - and means that microwave cookware is in
every home in South Africa - it's terribly hard to find here in the USA!
I dunno if they still have that policy in SA - I was there in the late
80s when this was the case. They also taught you for example how to keep
the magnetron opening clean (makes it last longer and work effectively)
- something else never mentioned here in USA, even in the instruction
book with a microwave purchase. At least not with my last one:-)
I cooked - not just reheating - for my family in a micro and now would
not be without one.
Corningware Glass is good, so is pyrex glass.
There are special microwave plastics made, but you need to get them from
a reputable manufacturer not some fly-by-night foreign outfit that has
made a look-alike without knowing the technology.
Good cooking often needs good sealing so I do not use corningware, it
leaks like a sieve and you lose a lot of flavour.
I like the cooking bags (like oven cooking bags but I import microwave
ones that are a little different from SA or Australia) and the microwave
specific ware if you can ever find it. Nordicware is a good brand.
Here are some others on a quick google:
http://www.kitchenemporium.com/info/22_ ... oking.html
And here's the popcorn maker I use, I just love it!
http://www.kitchenemporium.com/cgi-bin/ ... 60120.html
Not always good. The saucers can be stoneware with lead in the clay.
Yes isn't that horrible!
Namaste,
Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."