Microwaves: Scientific or Satanic?

It depends on whether or not you trust someone's definition of "safe". If we did away with all things that weren't really safe, but aren't killing us within a short enough span of time to be afraid of it, we would be far poorer countries.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to mention that the plastic and glue your food is packaged in is killing you as well by osmosis of chemical leeching, not to mention the chemicals used in growing, cooking and treating your food and the sterilizers used in recyclables are extremely toxic substances which are "safe" enough to use in moderate amounts by bottlers who are poorly regulated and don't properly rinse off chemical residue or even necessarily mix cleaning solutions precisely. But, yeah, if someone tells you it's okay, it's probably best not to worry about it, because you can't live forever anyway.

rest my case!

Brain's faggots

Whatever way you look at it, microwaves are the devil's work.

I guess it true what they say, the devil gets all the best kitchen utensils.

Grapes of wrath
Cut a grape in half. Not all the way, just leave a little skin between the two halves. Place the cut grape on a plate - round sides down, flat (cut) side up, still attached or just touching if severed. Start the microwave. You will not believe the arcs and plasma you can get out of a little grape. This trick does not always work, but one out of 10-15 gripe gives a spectacular show. We have cut them top to bottom and side to side, both ways works. We have tried large green seedless grapes and smaller purple grapes, the smaller ones tend to perform better. We also notice that there is some correlation between their angle in the microwave and the arcing. We believe the effect to be the two halves of the grape acting as resonant chambers for the microwave radiation and the arcing to perhaps be due to the difference in charge between the grape hemispheres. If this is correct the effect should be most spectacular when the grape halves are aligned with the microwave source.

Ponces

The implication was not that you were the fairies.

Anyway, would somebody like to post about microwaves now?

What, you mean that rubbish one that takes about half an hour to light up properly? Are you sure there's one in the hall as well?

http://bad-candy.com/circuspeanuts/images/peanutswell3.jpg

Radiowaves are EMR.

Microwaves are EMR, in fact microwaves are considered to belong to the part of the EMR spectrum called Radio Frequency(RF).

Infra-red heat (that warm stuff that you feel when you are close to an element or a flame or a person or a car etc.) is EMR.

Light is EMR.

Radiowaves, microwaves, infra-red and light are all non-ionising radiation. They do not make things radioactive. X-rays, gamma rays and cosmic rays (which are also types of EMR) are called ionising radiation and they do make things radioactive.

Yes, microwaves cook using radiation. Normal ovens also cook using radiation. All that differs is the wavelength/frequency of the radiation. Microwaves have a longer wavelength (and lower frequency) than infra-red(heat), and therefore have deeper penetration.

When you cook something in a normal oven the radiation only penetrates a few millimetres. If the food is left cooking in the oven for a substantial amount of time then the heat near the surface of the food will be conducted to the middle of the food and so the food will have become hot all the way through and will be cooked.

When you cook something in a microwave oven the radiation penetrates a few centimetres. If the thing you are cooking is not very big then it will all be cooked quite quickly. If it is a larger piece of food then it will only become cooked all the way through by letting conduction do its work just like in the normal oven.

There is nothing scary or satanic about microwaves apart from some people's gross misunderstanding of them.

I am also the toilet paper fairy. But the washing up liquid antiChrist as I make foam parties with it.

First of all, cooking food in any form is bad for you because our bodies depend on the live enzymes within food (meat not included) to remain clean and healthy inside and throughout every cell. Cooking kills live enzymes. Most modern foods keep the body in a constant state of cell inflammation, which, if you couldn't tell by the sounds of it is bad for you. Inflammation of cells is what leads to cancers and poor skin complexion, among other things.

Although I agree that there are probably too many concentrated sources of electro-magnetic-radiation and emr interference happening all around us I don't see the point in being more worried about microwave ovens that computer monitors, electric blankets, televisions, radio stations/receivers, hair dryers, mobile phones et cetera.

Personally I'm more worried about the prospect of some crazy Americans starting WWIII than I am about whether my food was cooked in a crockpot, a gas oven or a microwave!

I can see where you are coming from with you microwave & wheat/carb paranoia but I think your ideas are currently a bit askew and that with a greater understanding of both radiation and nutrition you might review the locus of your concerns.

For example, the irradiation of food and the promotion of dairy products are far more dangerous than microwave cooking and bleached flour (okay, the bleached flour is almost as bad as the dairy products but nowhere nears so insidious or ubiquitous).

I'm interested to know whether you restrict you meat intake to organically/bio-dynamically farmed meats only?

Yep, I know it's not an entirely perfect diet, but there's a difference between avoiding unhealthy things and abstaining from life altogether, because everything is so fucked up you can't avoid some level of toxic exposure. However, a body with less cellular damage has less to repair every night at sleepy time, doesn't it?

I feel you are using the same sort of argument used on people who are against meat "because meat is murder "and therefore you ask, "is that a leather belt?" It's not an issue of whether or not I'm 100% pure and natural.

I've inherited a microwave in my new apartment, never had one before, and am not hardly using it at all (Nude Spock would approve). What's the cheapest / most efficient use I can make of it? Do any of you consume those "pocket" meals, the very thought of which unhinges me?

at home v. occasionally to reheat leftovers, and canned soup if feeling v. v. lazy.

and defrosting meat if forgotten to take frozen meat out in time.

You can cook a potato in a pressure cooker faster.

Real popcorn takes about the same amount of time.

Reheating coffee takes what, two minutes longer on the stovetop?

what i use it for

reheating leftovers
scrambled eggs
cocoa
yeah some veg, but usually boil

i've never done re-heated coffee- does this work?

have lived for about a year now without a microwave. it's been okay. however I never make more than I can eat in a sitting, and usually just throw out leftovers :|

typical eastern world wastefulness ^

hahah that is so far from the truth :|