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Microwave Safety: Why You Don't Need to Worry About Radiation or Other Nonsense
Microwave Safety: Why You Don't Need to Worry About Radiation or Other Nonsense
January 18, 2009
Microwaves are incredibly practical. You put your food in, press a button and a short time later it's warm. Yet I've heard people claim that microwave ovens are dangerous because of their radiation or that they somehow make food unhealthy. I don't think we need to be scared of the microwave sitting in the kitchen, so here's a quick look at how it actually works.
How a Microwave Works
A microwave oven uses electromagnetic waves generated by a component called a magnetron. These waves make certain molecules in food, especially water molecules, respond in a way that produces heat. It's not a mysterious kind of radiation that stays inside the meal. It simply heats it.
One thing people often get wrong is that microwaves supposedly cook food "from the inside out". The waves penetrate a certain distance into the food, but heat still needs to spread through it. That's also why microwave meals can end up hot in one place and cold in another. Stirring and allowing the food to stand can help with more even heating.
Microwaves are non-ionizing radiation. That means they don't have enough energy to ionize atoms in the way X-rays or gamma rays can. And a properly functioning microwave oven is designed to keep the radiation inside while it's operating.
What About Nutrients?
Heating changes food, no matter whether you use a pan, an oven or a microwave. How many nutrients are retained depends on things such as temperature, cooking time and how much water you use. Because microwave cooking is often quick and uses relatively little water, it can actually preserve some nutrients quite well.
That doesn't make every microwave-cooked meal healthier than every other meal. It just means there's no good reason to assume microwave cooking automatically destroys all the nutrients.
There are a few practical things worth keeping in mind. Use dishes suitable for microwave heating, be careful with metal objects that could cause sparks, and make sure food is heated thoroughly rather than leaving cold spots in the middle. Hot liquids and containers can also burn you (which is a much more realistic risk than mysterious radiation poisoning).
Scientific Articles and Studies
Effects of Different Cooking Methods on Nutritional and Physicochemical Characteristics of Selected Vegetables
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf072304b
Phenolic compound contents in edible parts of broccoli inflorescences after domestic cooking
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa.1585
Radiation: Microwave ovens
https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-microwave-ovens
Closing Words
A microwave oven heats food using electromagnetic waves. It doesn't turn your lunch radioactive, and it doesn't make a normal meal poisonous. Use it properly, heat your food evenly and enjoy your meal. There are enough real things to worry about without inventing new ones.
Note: This blog post reflects the information and state of knowledge available at the time of publication, shown below the title. Posts are not routinely updated after publication, except for spelling, grammar or formatting corrections, or to correct factual errors. External links and references also reflect the situation at the time of publication and may have changed since. Images and infographics may be updated as part of broader website design changes.
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