Microwave cooking: pros and cons



Microwave cooking takes place inside an oven that produces electromagnetic waves. In all other types of cooking, heat is produced from outside the food and applied to food.

In microwave cooking the heat that cooks food is generated directly inside the food : microwaves excite the molecules generating oscillations between them that produce heat and lead to cooking.

Let's see the pros and cons of this type of cooking.

Microwave cooking: the pros

Microwave cooking is a relatively "recent" cooking. The first microwave ovens became widespread in the United States in the 1970s, while in Italy they arrived only a decade later, to find widespread use only around 2000.

Microwave cooking has culturally found a barrier in our country, as it is difficult to apply to culinary traditions to which we are all equally linked. Only with the advent of junk food and the widespread use of precooked and pre-packaged industrial food has the microwave oven found its place in Italian kitchens .

From a practical point of view the microwave oven allows to quickly heat any pre-cooked or pre-packaged food, to cook vegetables and white meats in a short time and without adding fat . The microwave oven saves time and expenses for gas or electricity, but it is not suitable for all types of food.

Despite the various campaigns against the microwave oven, it can be said that currently the safety conditions guaranteed by the ovens on the market are acceptable: there is no dispersion of electromagnetic waves outside the oven itself and inside the food there are no changes important chemicals when cooking times are respected.

I against microwave cooking

Safety aside, however, there are still some precautions to be taken into consideration: first of all is the choice of the container in which the food is cooked: not all containers are suitable for microwave cooking, and also those indicated as dedicated to this type of cooking they release, although in small doses, BPA .

BPA is a chemical that interferes with the production of certain hormones within the body. These concentrations were detected as minimal, but there are no toxicity studies due to progressive BPA concentrations in organisms.

Another consideration from doing on cooking with the microwave oven concerns its being a relatively "young" cooking method: studies on the effects of cooking with a microwave oven on certain natural substances or used as an additive in food have not yet been exhausted. commonly marketed and also intended for microwave cooking.

An example of this is the results of the study on diacetyl present in popcorn to be prepared in the microwave: diacetyl is used to give the aroma of butter to popcorn, but it has been discovered that this substance can contribute to the development of degenerative diseases such as alzheimer's disease. How many other still unknown substances used in food or added to foods specifically intended for microwave cooking can damage the body?

Finally we can make observations on microwave cooking also from the energy point of view : microwave cooking takes place through the mechanical agitation of the molecules that make up the food structure.

If it is true, as macrobiotics states, that we are what we eat and that the nature of food changes according to the energy with which it is cooked, that the energy deriving from yin or yang cooking becomes part of us transported as information from food itself, what energy do we introduce together with microwaved food?

Comparing cooking modes

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