Is It Safe to Eat Microwave Food?

Microwave Food: Safe or Dangerous?

You probably have a microwave in your kitchen, and it’s tucked away neatly in a cabinet or on the corner of a counter. The first microwaves were much larger, having landed in commercial kitchens, ship galleys, and military canteens. These original models first appeared in 1946 and weighed approximately 750 pounds and cost $5,000 apiece.

Microwaves were discovered a year earlier in 1945 by accident. Percy Spencer, an American engineer, was testing a magnetron tube for a radar project when he stumbled across a device that would change how people eat.

It took more than 20 years for microwaves to make their way into residential kitchens, as a Whirlpool microwave became available for home use in 1967. At that point, they were still considered a luxury item and came with a $500 price tag.

Today, you can get a microwave for less than $100 at virtually any retailer, whether online or in person. However, there have long been questions about how safe it is to eat food that has been heated by microwaves.

If you’re like the millions of people who rely on a microwave to zap some leftovers or prepare a frozen dinner, take heart. Microwaves are safe, but there are some steps you should take to protect your health and wellness.

How Does a Microwave Work?

In order to understand why microwaves are safe, it’s a good idea to look at how they work. On their most basic level, microwaves work by turning electricity into a type of energy that generates heat.

Inside your microwave, there’s a generator called a magnetron, which is what Percy Spencer was working on when he discovered the microwave. That magnetron takes the electricity generated by the outlet that your microwave is plugged into and turns it into electromagnetic waves called microwaves.

When those waves penetrate the food that you’re heating, they cause the molecules in the food to vibrate. This vibration results in heat.

Do Microwaves Use Radiation to Heat Food?

One of the reasons that people claim even the best microwave is dangerous involves their use of radiation. Yes, your microwave uses radiation to heat your food, but that doesn’t make them inherently dangerous.

People typically think of radiation in medical settings, which makes them assume that it’s hazardous. If you’ve had X-rays or other medical tests done, you’ve probably seen people wearing special vests or aprons that protect them from radiation. T

he good news is that the type of radiation your microwave uses is not the same type of radiation used in these settings.

Microwaves rely on nonionizing radiation, which is not dangerous. Instead of changing the molecular makeup of the food that’s being heated up, this nonionizing radiation makes the food vibrate and the movement generates heat.

Since the chemical structure of the food doesn’t change, there is no risk of radiation associated with eating food from a microwave.

Different agencies and independent teams of researchers have spent decades studying the safety of microwaves. They all came to the same conclusion: When used properly, microwaves do not cause any adverse health effects.

This is because microwaves are designed to keep the electromagnetic waves inside the cooking area. The FDA has been regulating the manufacturing process of microwaves for more than five decades.

One of these regulations mandates that microwaves must leak less than 5 mW of radiation per square centimeter at roughly two inches throughout their lifespan.

It’s also good to know that your microwave stops emitting any type of waves when it’s turned off, so you don’t have to worry about radiation building up in the microwave or leaking out of it when it’s not in use.

Is There a Link Between Microwaves and Cancer?

Whenever you turn on the news or read an article online, you probably find something about a food you eat or something else you consume being linked to cancer.

There have been stories about a link between microwaves and cancer for decades, but there is no link between the two. As we’ve already established, there is no risk of radiation exposure when using a microwave, so there’s no cancer-causing link there.

Additionally, there has never been a study that showed a positive correlation between cancer and eating food that was prepared in a microwave.

Does Microwaving Food Hurt the Nutritional Value?

In many cases, food that’s convenient isn’t healthy and food that’s healthy isn’t convenient. Since microwaves are popular because of the convenience that they offer, many people assume that you cannot eat healthy food from a microwave.

One of the most common myths surrounding the microwave claims that heating food this way lessens the food’s nutritional value.

According to numerous studies, microwaving your food doesn’t change its nutritional value any more than other cooking methods do. One study involved putting a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice into a microwave.

Researchers found that the nutritional value of those drinks didn’t change in a microwave compared to heating them on a stove. The same study was conducted with a filet of herring, and the nutritional value was the same when the filet was microwaved and when it was grilled.

You may be surprised to learn that while microwaving food doesn’t lessen its nutritional value, one popular method of cooking does. Boiling food has been shown to decrease nutritional value because some of the nutrients that are water-soluble dissolve in the boiling water.

The Most Important Microwave Safety Tips

A microwave is not dangerous, nor does it lessen a food’s nutritional value. However, there are two major safety tips to keep in mind.

First, be cautious when handling food or liquid that comes out of a microwave.

The most common microwave-related injuries are burns. It’s not radiation poisoning, nor is it illness caused by eating microwaved food. People routinely burn themselves by being careless when they take something out of the microwave.

The other safety tip to keep in mind involves microwaving plastic. The only correlation between microwaves and cancer involves plastics, which can leech into the food when exposed to heat.

For the same reason that experts are now discouraging people from drinking water out of plastic bottles, it’s important to be cautious about the containers that you microwave food in.

Before putting a plastic container in the microwave, make sure that it’s labeled “microwave safe.” It’s also a good idea to avoid microwaving Styrofoam containers, as they have also been shown to allow chemicals to seep into the food.

Your microwave is not a dangerous household appliance that exposes you to radiation and makes your food less nutritious.

If there is any correlation between a decrease in nutritional value and your microwave, it’s based on the fact that many of the foods that you can “heat and eat” don’t have a lot of nutritional value to begin with. You can confidently microwave your food without fear of radiation or other dangers.

Simply be careful with hot food or drink and be sure to only use containers that are microwave-safe.