212 579 9320
In my new book Strong Kids Healthy Kids I stated that microwaving foods damages nutrients and thus should be avoided.
Well, the hard, cold fact is ALL cooking methods damage some nutrients and the microwave is not really any better or worse than any other method of cooking when considering how to cook for preserving nutrient content.
I admit that my investigation into the subject was not as thorough as it should have been. In reading several websites and papers on the subject, I sort of deluded myelf into thinking that the microwave was far worse than other methods of cooking foods and virtually destroyed all of the nutrients within.
I was wrong.
That said, you have got to try the Sous Vide method of cooking. My co-authors Drs. Michael and MaryDan Eades have developed this home sized version machine. I was invited to a tasting event the other day and the food was just awesome. Moist, perfectly cooked scrambled eggs, salmon to die for the vegetables….wow.
I’m not wrong about this!
|
|
|
|
|
 |
I've been involved in exercise ever since I became a member of The Charles Atlas Club when I was 10 years old. In 1998, I founded and established Serious Strength on the Upper West Side of NYC. My clients include kids, seniors (and everyone in between), top CEOs, celebrities, bestselling authors, journalists and TV personalities.
Strong Kids Healthy Kids
Euphoria Olive Oil
Gary Taubes: Good Calories Bad Calories
Michael & MaryDan Eades M.D.: Protein Power Lifeplan
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Fred,
You wrote:
“Well, the hard, cold fact is ALL cooking methods damage some nutrients and the microwave is not really any better or worse than any other method of cooking when considering how to cook for preserving nutrient content.”
Have you read ‘Catching Fire, how cooking made us human’ by Richard Wrangham ? I saw this book recommended on Mike Eades’s blog and bought it as I’m very interested in the history of human evolution – and the Paleo diet. Anyway, one of the main points in this book is that cooking made more of the nutrients in meat and vegetables available to our bodies and helped us evolve into the homo sapiens we are, so cooking is helpful regarding most nutrients – exceptions being nutrients like vitamin C which get damaged by any kind of heat.
People who exist on purely raw food diets have a hard time getting in all the right nutrients without eating practically all day long like our primate cousins the chimps and gorillas do.
cheers,
Anne
That is true Anne. I should read the book. Thanks for the tip.
What about the radiation factor of the microwave? I know we are constantly bombarded with toxins, be it through poor drinking water or drugs used in cattle and such, I can’t imagine a microwave would be safe.
Thanks for your thoughts.
This is from a friend who is a biochemist:
“From a physical point of view, looking at the visible spectrum, we say that there are roughly three kinds of radiation. There is:
1. high energy radiation, ultrviolet radiation which is of sufficient energy to interact with the electrons in chemical bonds and therefore catalyze chemical changes, which is why you might not want too much sunlight.
2. In the visible range light interacts with the electrons (which is why things look different colors) but generally do not actually change the chemical bonds unless they are very high intensity as in a laser.
3. In the infra-red, the radiation causes molecules to vibrate leading to increase in thermal energy which is why you might keep food under IR flight in a restaurant where you didn’t want them to keep cooking but where they would be warm when the waiter comes back from texting to his girlfriend.
4. (continuation of 3). Microwaves are still lower energy and roughly speaking causes molecules to spin around, again raising their temperature but not changing their molecular structure, the way high energy radiation does. In an oven the waves have high intensity so the moleculaes heat up faster but the motion does not normally lead to chemical change unless the molecules themselves are very reactive.
So it is not impossible that something is wrong with microwaves but one has to have a mechanism (beyond the fact that cooking changes food anyway). “
Thanks Fred,
I also understand that the newer microwaves are safer than older versions, which according to a friend of mine, were banned in some European countries for radiation outside of the device at unsafe limits. another issue is cooking in the oven with plastic. Does a plastic bowl break down during the cooking process enough to be unsafe for human consumption? Makes you think about it.
For the record, I do have a microwave. I don’t cook in it, but it heats up my coffee just fine:)
i don’t use plastic or wrap in the microwave nor ’special’ microwave dishes – it looks like plastic to me. i use good old fashioned glass/pyrex with lids.
That’s why I don’t like Sous Vide cooking. IMO, heat, food and plastics should be kept apart at all times…
If the plastic bag is food grade, you are not harming the food in any way according to the Eades and other folks that use sous vide style cooking. I’ll look into it further.
That’s exactly what the makers of plastic baby bottles keep telling us and then independent researchers find them leaking BPA into the milk…
I know that (liquid) fats react much easier with it’s surroundings then other foods.
I am in the middle of reading your excellent book Strong kids .you wrote there that drinking a gallon of water is Equivalent to running half an hour on a treadmill .Can you please direct me to the source of this ?
Hi Sol -
The source is Dr. Ellington Darden’s research. He states that it takes about 150 calories to heat 50 degree water to 98.6 degrees before voiding. Go to http://www.drdarden.com for more info on superhydration.