The microwave oven is a very convenient cooking tool. I have always been worried about whether microwave oven food is healthy. I would like to ask the engineers here, particularly those with microwave background, whether microwave oven food is healthy.
in the first place it depends on the ingredients,
what a microwave mainly does is to heat up the water in the products, thereby heating the whole product. Sounds pretty harmless to me, but I am not an expert on MV.
Biggest risk is when the device leaks radiation (and some do) because that would make things outside the device "cook"
I can see no problem with the cooking method. All the microwaves are doing are causing the water molecules in the food to vibrate increasing the temperature. In fact the very precise control and lack of energy waste seem like advantages. The contents of ready made microwave meals are a different question e.g often a lot of salt and sugar are a different issue.
Now another question for the forum . Super-heating i.e. getting a liquid past its normal boiling point. I would have thought this was next to impossible in a domestic situation but I have had it occur to me and read other accounts so it does not seem to be as rare as you might expect.
You put a liquid in a domestic microwave oven. The oven has a "clunky" rotary motion. The glassware is domestic and well used i.e. not pristine fault free. A liquid is heated, I cannot remember what but it certainly was not something like distilled water. The timer "pings", you open the oven door, pick up the glass, extract it from the oven, and then suddenly most of the content vaporise and eject themselves from the glass. There is a "s*** that is sore" moment but for me it was all at arms length and only transient.
Really though this should not be possible should it?
How on earth could I have got a liquid, in what seems quite a stable condition, past boiling point?
How on earth could I have got a liquid, in what seems quite a stable condition, past boiling point?
Explained very well here - How Superheating Works - Water in a Microwave -
robtillaart: exactly so try doing it - its next to impossible.
To superheat the liquid you need to avoid any source of nucliation where bubbles of steam might form at boiling point.
You need ultra smooth glassware, you don't want to agitate the liquid, the liquid should be pure etc. etc.
However you can do it with tap water in an old glass in a shaky old microwave - something is not 100% correct.
I have done it with an old glass in my old microwave which the turntable did not turn
not exactly a classic description of what is given but pulled out a cup of hot but stable water for tea, set it on the counter, and then added a spoon of sugar it instantly boiled over
Osgeld:
I have done it with an old glass in my old microwave which the turntable did not turnnot exactly a classic description of what is given but pulled out a cup of hot but stable water for tea, set it on the counter, and then added a spoon of sugar it instantly boiled over
Did you filter the water? I'm wondering if that might have something to do with it. A lot of people have poor quality water and have inline filters or softeners. I've never had this happen to me, but we have really good well water here.
tap water
I've super-heated water for cocoa once; that was a fun surprise! No injury, but a small mess to clean up.
In my high-school chemistry class, we did a lab where were super-cooled water. Now, we took a ton of precautions to do this properly - but we basically chilled the water down to below freezing, while keeping it in it's liquid state. The part I can't remember is if we then introduced something to cause it to instantly freeze solid (or maybe I am mixing up that lab with another lab about stability and crystalization from super-saturated states - it's been over 20 years now).
Is it that it is heated so quickly that convection hasn't got time to establish, so you may have a layer of hot water trapped under cold?
I have seen the effect with milk in microwave, but not plain water.
I don't think a lack of convection makes it happen. Any impurity in the liquid should act as a site for bubbles of steam to form, yet it can be done with that happening using tapwater and cr0sh even managed to do it with cocoa!
Surface tension seems to hold the thing together. You can lift the cup or glass out of the microwave without any special care but as soon as you stick a spoon in whoosh you get a geyser of steam and boiling liquid. Definitely a good idea not to put your face above liquids just removed from a microwave.
It really should not be as easy to superheat water as it seems to be.
I am reminded of a schoolboy from Africa. I think he sold ice lollies to get a bit of income. He reported to his science class that he could make the lollies faster if he used warm water, and as a result got ridiculed. However I think eventually he was proven correct, somehow warmer water can freeze faster than colder water. It really does not make sense, strange stuff water.
You can supercool carbonated water and beer by putting them in a deep freeze then taking them out once they are below zero but still liquid. When you open the bottles the liquid freezes in quite a pleasing way. I am not sure if this is due to bubble formation or the pressure reduction, probably a bit of both.
robtillaart:
in the first place it depends on the ingredients,
what a microwave mainly does is to heat up the water in the products, thereby heating the whole product. Sounds pretty harmless to me, but I am not an expert on MV.Biggest risk is when the device leaks radiation (and some do) because that would make things outside the device "cook"
Great answer! 
(Long time since I've been here now)
Microwaves are very dangerous! I don't even own one! They alter the food that they are cooking and many leak radiation!
http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/health-hazards-to-know-about/microwave-ovens-the-proven-dangers
Never use one!
They alter the food that they are cooking
Hopefully they do otherwise it would not be cooked!
The article states;
Of all the natural substances -- which are polar -- the oxygen of water molecules reacts most sensitively. This is how microwave cooking heat is generated -- friction from this violence in water molecules. Structures of molecules are torn apart
If the water molecules react most then they must be being torn apart into their constituent hydrogen and oxygen. Why don't we hear of more explosions when they recombine?
What exactly is the differenence between a microwave from the sun and a microwave in an oven?
It is true of course that conventional grills produce must tastier layers of carcinogens on the surface of food - but some microwave ovens include grills as well so no need to miss out.
Who invented microwave ovens?
The Nazis
ROFL
even exposure to the energy-field itself was sufficient to cause such adverse side effects
Yes, microwaves will cook things. If you expose yourself to them expect to get cooked.
radman:
even exposure to the energy-field itself was sufficient to cause such adverse side effects
Yes, microwaves will cook things. If you expose yourself to them expect to get cooked.
So, what you are saying is that I am not microwave safe? There goes my microwave hair removal idea.
So, what you are saying is that I am not microwave safe? There goes my microwave hair removal idea.
LOL
You will be microwave safe upto a certain power density in mW/cm2. The same applies to all forms of electromagnetic radiation the sun will give you very nasty burns from UV and increase cancer risk for example.
A bit of critical thinking is required when reading the globalhealingcentre website. Yes if a nurse uses a domestic microwave oven to warm blood that probably will not do the recipient of the transfusion much good, However if she heated it in a pan on a stove the outcome would probably be similar.
Women remove hairs by having electrodes inserted into follicles to kill the root - how strange is that.
In "The Andromida Strain" (I think) there is some device that flash incinerates all body hair.
radman:
You will be microwave safe upto a certain power density in mW/cm2. The same applies to all forms of electromagnetic radiation the sun will give you very nasty burns from UV and increase cancer risk for example.A bit of critical thinking is required when reading the globalhealingcentre website. Yes if a nurse uses a domestic microwave oven to warm blood that probably will not do the recipient of the transfusion much good, However if she heated it in a pan on a stove the outcome would probably be similar.
Women remove hairs by having electrodes inserted into follicles to kill the root - how strange is that.
In "The Andromida Strain" (I think) there is some device that flash incinerates all body hair.
I was thinking more along the lines of the Tricho System for Hair Removal: