does cooking in the microwave oven destroy the vitamins?

Answer 1

Microwaving vegetables is actually healthier than boiling them on the stove.
You don't need use use water to cook in the microwave - the water actually takes away some of the nutrients.
When ever you cook veggies you take away some of the nutrients but steaming and microwaving are healthier than the conventional stove method of boiling.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/food-and-nutrition/AN01022
Answer
All cooking methods reduce nutrient levels in vegetables to some degree. Many vitamins are sensitive to heat exposure. Also, water used for cooking can dissolve and wash away even more of those vitamins. Microwave cooking is a good way to preserve nutrients in vegetables because it requires only a minimal amount of water and cooking times are very short.

Key tips for preserving nutrients in the microwave include:

* Use as little liquid as possible.
* Reduce the surface area of food by leaving vegetables in big pieces.
* Cover your cooking container to hold in steam and heat and reduce cooking time.
* Cook vegetables until just crisp and tender. Don't overcook.
* Avoid peeling vegetables when possible. Many of the nutrients are found in and just below the surface of the skin.

Answer 2

Microwaves are essentially high frequency radio waves. They heat food by twisting its water molecules back and forth so that those water molecules rub against one another. Like all electromagnetic waves, microwaves are absorbed and emitted as particles or "photons," but the photons of microwaves have so little energy that they are unable to cause chemical changes in the molecules they encounter. They simply heat food; they don't "irradiate" it. The only way a microwave oven damages the nutritional value of foods is if it overheats. Microwaves are not radioactive--radioactivity is the spontaneous fragmentation of the nuclei of atoms and is usually associated with the emission of high-energy particles; particles that can induce chemical changes in the molecules they encounter. Finally, if a microwave oven was properly constructed and hasn't been damaged, virtually no microwaves leak from it. A small amount of microwaves won't hurt you anyway--they are present all around us already because of satellite transmissions, cellular telephones, and even the thermal radiation from our surroundings.

Answer 3

Some scientists and doctors who say that microwave for cooking is harmful for human health should study more about our world today. I hope that those people who wrote me that microwave is harmful to health are not scientists who usually write incorrect or fake information in the magazines to mislead the public.

When we were using candlelight during the time of our ancestors, life was simple and the life span was about 48 years. When lightbulb was invented by Thomas Edison, many said that it is harmful to our eyes. When fluorescent lamp came out, a lot of people said that it is very harmful to our eyes and we can be blind soon. And now people said that microwave makes food poisonous and harmful to our health.

There is more to read at the link below........

Answer 4

I have always heard that micowaving food is not the healthiest way to prepare it; but we are a WANT IT NOW society, so it's very tempting to microwave your food. I rarely use mine for anything more than brief reheating. I don't care if it takes an hour in the oven to bake a potato; I can always find something to do while it bakes! ( Like make the rest of the meal, or clean up after the last meal LOL )

Answer 5

As long as you do not over cook, then the vitamins will still be there. It is actually recommended that you cook your veggies in the micro for a shorter amount of time, to not destroy the vitamins.

Answer 6

it really is an truly exciting question.. we actual did a chemistry lab in this in college. We had a eco-friendly bell pepper and we examined a raw pepper for diet C content cloth and then each and each team cooked theirs a diverse way and we examined the content cloth in our cooked ones. My team did microwaved and we actual were given a higher diet C content cloth out of our microwaved pepper than our raw pepper. Our TA did not thoroughly clarify this, notwithstanding it had to be an anomaly. regardless of if the different element of the kind were given the same effect. i'm not confident what replaced into happening, there is no way it created diet C... yet i have actual examined this. except our weido effect the steamed pepper retained the most diet C

Answer 7

cooking anything will destroy some of the vitamins. wether you use a microwave or slow cooker.
Vegitables especially have much more vitamins when they are in the raw state.

Answer 8

Yes, mostly of them, remember that what the microwave ovens do is the evaporation of the water inside the food, in this evaporation goes important vitamins like B complex, which is a complex soluble in water. is like when you cook your veggies in a pot of water, many of the vitamins remained in the water instead than in the veggies.

Answer 9

Yes it does - can't you taste it? The difference from conventional cooking compared to microwave? Microwaves are ok sometimes, but for flavor and health - go the old fashioned way!!!

Answer 10

It ruins some of the vitamins.

That's why I steam my vegies and that. A) because it keeps the vitamins there B) i like the taste better and last it's healthier.

Hope I answered your question!