Your daily adult tube feed all in one place!
I'm a dietitian, this is why microwaving food makes some meals MORE nutritious
A health expert has debunked the myth that microwaves remove nutrients from your food, reporting it's actually better than steaming or blanching vegetables in some cases.
Clinical dietician Shyla Cadogan clarified that any method of cooking - whether its frying, boiling or stir-frying - will impact the nutrients in food but microwaves have been shown to preserve them.
Microwaves use the 'average oven temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit to cook food and require less time to heat up food than alternate methods which helps prevent nutrient loss, she claims.
Microwaves use lower temperatures and require less time to heat up food than alternate methods which helps prevent nutrient loss
People have falsely claimed that the radiation in microwaves destroys the nutrients in food and breaks them apart into carcinogens, but Cadogan reported that this isn't the case.
The dietitian's claims have also been supported by others in her field.
Dr Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D., who serves as professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Senior Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, has shared similar points.
'Microwave cooking is actually one of the least likely forms of cooking to damage nutrients,' Komaroff wrote for a Harvard Health blog.
'That's because the longer food cooks, the more nutrients tend to break down, and microwave cooking takes less time.'
Microwaves use non-ionizing radiation, which releases electromagnetic waves that causes molecules in the food to move and generate heat that is transferred throughout the food.
The process cooks the food from the inside out and while it does cause some enzymatic shifts, Cadogan said that is true for almost any other cooking method that involves heat.
Meanwhile, the heat used to cook food on a stovetop or in a conventional oven increases the temperature from the outside in, meaning the exterior is exposed to increased heat by the time the center reaches the ideal temperature which increases nutrient loss.
The more amount of heat that's applied to the food and the longer it is cooked causes more nutrient loss, but also the amount of liquid like water affects the composition because the nutrients leach into it.
Boiling food, such as vegetables, has been found to destroy nutrients like vitamin C.
Cadogan, which shared the information in StudyFinds.com, cited a 2017 that found a 'higher retention of vitamin C was observed after microwaving with the lowest retention recorded after boiling.'
The research was conducted by a team at China's Chungbuk National University, which noted that 'microwave cooking caused the greatest loss of vitamin K in crown daisy and mallow; in contrast, it caused the least loss of vitamin K in spinach and chard.'
Vegetables which can lose nutrients just from being cut too much while boiling and blanching destroys vitamin C
The data also showed that microwaves preserved ingredients like sodium, potassium and phosphorus content in certain foods including sweet potatoes and carrots.
Both vegetables contain antioxidants - primarily beta-carotene which converts into vitamin A which helps strengthen your immune system and vision and eye health.
Similarly, microwaves also preserve the antioxidant called lycopene in tomatoes which reduces bad cholesterol and may help prevent heart disease, according to Verywell Health.
A 2023 study found that boiling vegetables had the highest negative effect, causing them to lose between 70 and 82 percent of its flavanoid content which are compounds found in food that contains antioxidant properties which reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke.
Boiled vegetables also lost a significant amount of minerals like potassium, magnesium, zinc, copper and manganese while 'microwaving was the most effective method for retaining the nutritional value of vegetables.'
The researchers found that microwaving vegetables had the mildest effect on vitamin C and actually preserved 90 percent of the food's initial content.
'Overall, studies actually show that microwaves may help preserve certain minerals and antioxidants,' Cadogan wrote in StudyFinds.
'Moreover, it's important to remember that certain antioxidants, like those in carrots, bell peppers, and tomatoes, become 'unlocked,' so to speak, by cooking.'