[Jack]

Decades ago a woman whose in-laws were religiously conservative Mennonite people told me this funny story.

The grandmother cooked noon dinner every day for her husband, their adult sons and all the farmhands. Since the farm was mostly worked by the muscle power of either men or horses, those hard-working men were monumental eaters. The grandmother roasted, boiled, whipped and baked walloping amounts of home-canned vegetables, mashed potatoes, big servings of meat, heavy desserts.

My friend was very surprised the day she walked into the grandmother's traditional farm kitchen - and there was a brand-new microwave oven. (This was in the 1970s, before microwaves were common anywhere.) The grandmother explained with a twinkle in her eye, "Oh, it's real good for melting butter and for warming up potatoes and gravy when the men work late. Though I have to say what I like best is after they all go back to the fields after dinner, and I can make myself a quick cup of cocoa and sit down and rest my feet a bit."

I've read a little about some of the guiding principles in Amish and other simple-life religious communities. Folks do not cling to old ways for the sake of being old-fashioned. What they are trying to do, and succeeding at quite brilliantly, is this.

Excerpt. Read more at This Link

Since we discuss community and the possible restriction of mobility implied by Peak Oil, I thought this article might be of interest. The article must be read in its entirety to be fully appreciated.

[The_Virginian]

um story not funny IMHO. Microwaves lower your white blood cell count, and were rejected by the Wermacht for use in food making... (but not sterilizing, where they came in handy for de-lousing)...they also cahnge the structure of the food radicaly unlike convection ovens.

Sharing and community social aspects are well covered by Anthropolgy...

Pacific Islanders are PRIME examples.

[Falconoffury]

Food cooked in microwave ovens is profoundly unhealthy. Amino acids are broken down, vitamins are destroyed, and the molecular structure of organic material is changed. When I changed my life to a healthy lifestyle two years ago, I got rid of my microwave. After eating microwaved food most of my life, I was surprised at how much better I felt. I use a toaster oven now.

If you don't believe me, I found an article that has lots of information and studies explaining why microwaved food is unhealthy.

Health-Science Article

A few excerpts...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n 1991, there was a lawsuit in Oklahoma concerning the hospital use of a microwave oven to warm blood needed in a transfusion. The case involved a hip surgery patient, Norma Levitt, who died from a simple blood transfusion. It seems the nurse had warmed the blood in a microwave oven. This tragedy makes it very apparent that there's much more to "heating" with microwaves than we've been led to believe. Blood for transfusions is routinely warmed, but not in microwave ovens. In the case of Mrs. Levitt, the microwaving altered the blood and it killed her.

[wisconsin_cur]

so if I primarily use mine to reheat day old coffee does that mean that I can keep it?

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wisconsin_cur', 's')o if I primarily use mine to reheat day old coffee does that mean that I can keep it?

[frankthetank]

Food cooked it the microwave tastes like ass. I just bought one of those pizze ovens and have been cooking in that. I do have to say that i've got a dinosaur of a microwave here in the house. GE built in 1984... She's a beast.

[jboogy]

microzapper is the worst way to heat food,I only use it when I have to.tastes like crap and as falcofuffery has confirmed is most likely unhealthy as well. I'd always suspected as much!

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'F')ood cooked it the microwave tastes like ass.

[evilgenius]

Coffe up to 24 hrs is like the 3 second rule when things hit the floor.

[WildRose]

I frequently use mine to zap the SAME CUP of coffee many times over a several-hour period. LOL! But maybe not so good for me.

[Armageddon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'F')ood cooked it the microwave tastes like ass. I just bought one of those pizze ovens and have been cooking in that. I do have to say that i've got a dinosaur of a microwave here in the house. GE built in 1984... She's a beast.

[dukey]

Falconoffury, you sure you aren't a conspiracy theorist ? Have you been wearing tinfoil hats ?

Na just kidding. Thanks for the information
i'll look into this

on a side not my health has greatly improved this year as i have changed my diet to more healthy stuff. Lots of juice, fruit, raw veg etc ;p Cooking food also destroys it. If you cook your vegs too long they lose a lot of their vitamins and goodness.

[Chesire]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', 'C')offe up to 24 hrs is like the 3 second rule when things hit the floor.

[smiley]

I'm sorry but do you guys really take this stuff seriously?

The examples mentioned in the article are perfectly true. But they are also well known, perfectly plausible and have nothing to do with mysterious radiation.


The reason one should not heat a baby bottle in a microwave is because a baby bottle should be sterile. And one should not heat anything in a sterile container, without adding a stirrer or cooking pearls, whether it is on fire electric or microwave. Since the walls of the container are clean no bubbles are formed and you get no mixing hence you have a high risk of super-heating or boiling delay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheating

Blood and baby milk should not be heated in any other way than au bain marie. This is what they do in hospitals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain-marie

With any intenser heat source, like electric, gas and microwave you get coagulation and chemical changes.

So yes you shouldn't put powder milk in a microwave, but as any mother will tell you you shouldn't put it in a kettle on an open fire either.

These are trivial facts.

And for microwave dinners. I think microwave dinner's are crap anyway so I prepare my food fresh. Moreover I think that if you have no time to shop and cook and have to resort to microwave dinners, then your lifestyle might be even more worrisome than your nutrition.

[deepareview]

The information given here is very useful to me. I do appreciate your insights and thoughts.