Hi Irene,
Trying to track down some vague memories, I found this interesting
piece. What I was trying to track down had to do with changes in
nutritional content, findings that certain nutrients are preserved by
microwaving, while others are depleted. I haven't found that yet...
identical plants, raising one with regular tap water, and the other
with microwaved tap water. It suggested that microwaved water is not a
good thing for plants--but certainly a personal experiment involving
only two plants can't be taken as proof.
But what I found was far more interesting, and also far more damning.
I would be interested in your thoughts?
------------------------
From
http://www.relfe.com/microwave.html
[...]
There have been very few scientific studies done on the effect of
eating food microwaved food. This is rather surprising when you think
about the fact that microwaves have been with us for only a few decades
- and that in that time the incidence of many diseases has continued to
increase.
Two researchers, Blanc and Hertel, confirmed that microwave cooking
significantly changes food nutrients. Hertel previously worked as a
food scientist for several years with one of the major Swiss food
companies. He was fired from his job for questioning procedures in
processing food because they denatured it. He got together with Blanc
of the Swiss Federal Institute of Biochemistry and the University
Institute for Biochemistry.
They studied the effect that microwaved food had on eight individuals,
by taking blood samples immediately after eating. They found that after
eating microwaved food, haemoglobin levels decreased. "These results
show anaemic tendencies. The situation became even more pronounced
during the second month of the study".
Who knows what results they would have found if they had studied people
who ate microwaved food for a year or more?
The violent change that microwaving causes to the food molecules forms
new life forms called radiolytic compounds. These are mutations that
are unknown in the natural world. Ordinary cooking also causes the
formation of some radiolytic compounds (which is no doubt one reason
why it is better to eat plenty of raw food), but microwaving cooking
causes a much greater number. This then causes deterioration in your
blood and immune system.
In addition, they found that the number of leucocytes increases after
eating microwaved food - something which haematologists take very
seriously, because this is often a sign of highly harmful effects, such
as poisoning.
Also, after eating microwaved food, cholesterol levels increased.
Hertel said "Common scientific belief states that cholesterol values
usually alter slowly over longer periods of time. In this study, the
markers increased rapidly after the consumption of the microwaved
vegetables." He believes his study tends to confirm new scientific data
that suggest cholesterol may rapidly increase in the blood secondary to
acute stress. "Also," he added, "blood cholesterol levels are less
influenced by cholesterol content of food than by stress factors. Such
stress-causing factors can apparently consist of foods which contain
virtually no cholesterol - the microwaved vegetables."
The results were published in "Search for Health" in the Spring of
1992. How was this research greeted? A powerful trade organisation, the
Swiss Association of Dealers for Electroapparatuses for Households and
Industry somehow made the President of the Court of Seftigen issue a
`gag order'. Hertel and Blanc were told that if they published their
findings they would face hefty fines or up to one year in prison. In
response to this, Blanc recanted his findings. Hertel, on the other
hand, went on a lecture tour and demanded a jury trial.
FINALLY, in 1998 the Court `Gag Order' was removed. In a judgment
delivered at Strasbourg on 25 August 1998 in the case of Hertel v.
Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights held that there had
been a violation of Hertel's rights in the 1993 decision. The Court
decided that the `gag order' prohibiting him form declaring that
microwaved food is dangerous to health was contrary to the right to
freedom of expression. In addition, Switzerland was sentenced to pay
compensation of F40,000.
In Summary: Blanc and Hertel found that eating microwaved food:
* Increases cholesterol
* Increases white blood cell numbers
* Decreases red blood cell numbers
* Causes production of radiolytic compounds (compounds unknown in
nature)