Microwaved Food and Obesity

Do you remember your families first microwave? I do. We bought it at White's in Clinton, Oklahoma. It was 1978 and I was in the 5th grade. It was a significant purchase for my family, with a cost of over $700. I still remembering walking around the store and looking at the different models, I should clarify, looking at the two different models. Our microwave was large, very heavy, brown and had a dial. In those days there was not a turntable and ours caught on fire regularly.

I think microwaved food tastes different than food cooked on the stove. Scrambled eggs cooked in a microwave reminds me of plastic vomit you buy in a novelty store. Chicken noodle soup cooked in the microwave is missing a key ingredient: Flavor.

When I was pregnant I recall the pregnancy books suggested not to stand in front of the microwave. Did you know Russia banned microwaves? Did you know the Swiss government put a gag order on a study conducted by scientist that suggested microwave ovens were detremental to a persons health?

Me either, until recently, when I started reading. It all began with a question I had concerning my son. Five people live in my household. My husband, my 3 children and myself. My oldest is the only member of my household that is overweight. He eats the same food that we eat, drinks diet soda's and lots of water. He does not like chocolate and wears braces so he is very limited on the foods he can eat. I began asking myself this question: Why is my son overweight? What does he do differently than the rest of us? I found nothing different in his eating habits. The only thing different I found was his use of the microwave. He microwaves everything, even cold sandwiches. When we eat takeout, he puts his food in the microwave to warm it up.

I began asking myself does microwaving food affect how the body metabolizes the food? Through much research I have not found an answer, only a theory. I read numerous articles stating that the molecules in microwaved food were changed. I found an article indicating that the nutrients in baby formula and milk were changed when microwaved. Another article was about the woman in Oklahoma that died when the nurse used a microwave to warm her blood prior to a transfusion.

When I was a child rarely was anyone overweight. I went to school with one boy that was overweight, and by today's standards he would be considered to have a medium build. When did this change? What has changed?

One thing is the microwave. A person could argue it isn't the microwave, but with the convenience of a microwave a person eats more.

We have an obesity epidemic in the United States that no one is able to explain or diet away. Have you noticed the large number of low fat, low calorie, microwavable meals in the frozen food section of the grocery store? Have you also noticed the increased rate of type 2 diabetes since microwaves became the norm? I am unplugging my microwave for one month as an experiment. I will let you know if this results in any weight loss.......