Do you have a booster who does n’t own amicrowave oven ? Are you that friend ? Here in the 21st hundred , more than90 percent of U.S. householdshave microwave oven , but though they proffer speedy cook times and a lot of public lavatory and energy efficiency , some people shun them with a firm hand . But why ? Here are five reasonableness — some myth - based and some based in reality — for persistent , twenty-first - hundred microwave oven dissing :
1. Takes Up Precious Counter Space
Somemicrowave ovensare big . Not as big as the first commercial microwave ever , the RaytheonRadarange , which was 6 invertebrate foot ( 1.8 meters ) tall and weigh over 700 pound ( 320 kilogram ) . But today ’s microwaves can still be big enough to seriously throw off the feng shui in your kitchen .
2. Concern It Emits Harmful Radiation
When a product becomes permeating enough to spawn other consumer product industries ( microwave oven popcorn and burritos , anyone ? ) you bang it ’s go to have its disparager — especially when you have to use the word " radiation sickness " to depict how it works .
But " radiation " is just a term used to describe waves of push on theelectromagnetic spectrum , which include radio waves , visible unclouded andX - ray . Microwave ovens work by emitting microwave radioactivity , the wavelength of which are just a little shorter than the radio receiver waves used in radar engineering science . These wave are used to jiggle water corpuscle inside food for thought meg of sentence per minute , while rubbing them together in the same way we rub our hands together for lovingness . This can make a whole lot of heat very speedily .
Even though certain wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum are very dangerous , microwaves are reasonably benignant .
3. Fear It Zaps Food’s Nutrients
In the motion-picture show " American Hustle , " Jennifer Lawrence ’s character Rosalyn Rosenfeld receives a microwave oven oven as a endowment . She calls it a " science oven " and promptly tries to apply it to heat up a foil - incubate casserole in an aluminum pan . After the resulting fervor is extinguished , her cheesed off husband asks her how she could be so stunned . She turns the tables on him : " You bed , I translate it takes all the nutrition right on out of our food ! "
Although the idea that microwave oven destroy the food in our food for thought is about as old as the contraption itself , turns out the opposite is in reality true . Food loses its nutritional value when it ’s cooked in a lot of liquid state at high oestrus for a long time . The good stuff in the nutrient you eat is best maintain bycooking it quicklyand using very small water , which is just what microwave oven do . In fact , survey intimate that microwave oven preserve nutrients like folic back breaker and antioxidants at a much higher charge per unit than stovetop cookery .
4. It Heats Food Unevenly
While formal oven heat food from the outside in , microwave ovenscook all orbit of the food at once . But since microwave oven are calibrate to focus on heating water , and the water in your food is n’t always pass around equally , the cooking method acting can heat raggedly . Protein , fat and amylum molecules heat more lento than water , and the bearing of a clustering of common salt prolongs cooking times as well . So , it might take only a couple of minutes to take that microwave oven meal from ice square block to fragrant , champagne lunch , but expect pocket of ice crystals and molten cheese . Or just , you know , stir it a few time while you ’re cook it .
5. It Doesn’t Kill Bacteria That Might Be Present
Although you probably should n’t be chowing down on contaminate food anyway , reheating can definitely obliterate some of the bad bacterium if you ’re just hell - out to on eat those two - hebdomad - former Thai leftover . In this casing , the problem with the microwave is it heat up pretty unevenly , as antecedently discussed . Eating contaminate food is a terrible idea to set out with , but cognise the microwave wo n’t be doing you any favors on the bacterium - stamp out front because it does n’t heat up all your food to the samehigh , bacterium - killing temperature .
