لخّصلي

There's nothing risky about microwave radiation - but there are health concerns about heating up plastic.You can also check your container's universal recycling symbol, often on the bottom of a product - those with a number 3 and the letters "V" or "PVC" include phthalates. ?Is cooking or reheating food in a microwave safe? ?Even if you avoid plastics, there are other potential risks of heating food in the microwave - including uneven heating, and the high temperatures used. ?First, consider using microwaves to reheat, rather than cook, food, as it may cook unevenly. ?"Temperatures will be different in a cross-section of the food.It's hard to achieve a completely uniform temperature, especially when talking about raw foods."?"Some plastic isn't designed for microwaves because it has polymers inside to make it soft and flexible, which melt at a lower temperature and may leach out during the microwave process if it goes beyond 100C (212F)," says Juming Tang, professor of food engineering at Washington State University.?Microwaving mobilises contaminants," says Rolf Halden, professor and director of the Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering at Arizona State University. ?And the potential risks don't necessarily increase with how often an individual microwaves food in plastic containers, Trasande argues - as the relationship is non-linear between the amount of chemical exposure and risk of hormone disruption. ?"The old pedagogy was that the dose mediated poison.Now we understand from multiple studies that low level exposures are where the greatest component of effects happens, so there's no safe level of exposure," Trasande says.Generally speaking, higher temperatures aren't a problem, but there is some research suggesting a risk linked to cooking some starchy foods in the microwave, including cereals and root vegetables.?When Betty Schwartz, professor of nutritional sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, saw her students heating jacket potatoes in the microwave on their lunchbreaks, she noticed small crystals inside their potatoes.?If you're eating crops grown from sunlight, you shouldn't be concerned about food from a microwave - Juming Tang ?The high temperatures of the microwave may also pose some risk.The researchers compared the impacts of boiling, steaming and microwaving different vegetables and concluded that microwaving was the most effective for retaining nutrients.Food must be heated until it is 82C (176F) throughout to kill any harmful bacteria - and because bacteria can still grow each time food cools back down, you shouldn't reheat a meal more than once.?However, researchers have also found that short exposure to microwaves - such as blanching or thawing - at low power might limit the formation of acrylamide when it's then cooked further.?We often microwave foods in plastic containers and wrapping, but some scientists warn of the risk of ingesting phthalates.Schwartz asked her students to boil their potatoes instead, and found that this didn't create acrylamide, which she says forms in higher temperatures in the microwave.?Asia's healthcare demands are evolving.How is Mitsui & Co. seeking to meet these challenges?

There's nothing risky about microwave radiation - but there are health concerns about heating up plastic.You can also check your container's universal recycling symbol, often on the bottom of a product - those with a number 3 and the letters "V" or "PVC" include phthalates. ?Is cooking or reheating food in a microwave safe? ?Even if you avoid plastics, there are other potential risks of heating food in the microwave - including uneven heating, and the high temperatures used. ?First, consider using microwaves to reheat, rather than cook, food, as it may cook unevenly. ?"Temperatures will be different in a cross-section of the food.It's hard to achieve a completely uniform temperature, especially when talking about raw foods." ?But it's important to note that reheating food comes with risks, too. Food must be heated until it is 82C (176F) throughout to kill any harmful bacteria - and because bacteria can still grow each time food cools back down, you shouldn't reheat a meal more than once. ?If you're eating crops grown from sunlight, you shouldn't be concerned about food from a microwave - Juming Tang
?The high temperatures of the microwave may also pose some risk. Generally speaking, higher temperatures aren't a problem, but there is some research suggesting a risk linked to cooking some starchy foods in the microwave, including cereals and root vegetables. ?When Betty Schwartz, professor of nutritional sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, saw her students heating jacket potatoes in the microwave on their lunchbreaks, she noticed small crystals inside their potatoes. ?When she analysed them, she found they were high in the chemical acrylamide, which can be a natural by-product of cooking. Schwartz asked her students to boil their potatoes instead, and found that this didn't create acrylamide, which she says forms in higher temperatures in the microwave. ?This is a concern because animal studies have shown that acrylamide acts as a carcinogen because it interferes with cell's DNA, but evidence in humans is limited. There is some research to suggest that microwaves are more favourable to the growth of acrylamide than other methods of cooking. ?Asia's healthcare demands are evolving. How is Mitsui & Co. seeking to meet these challenges? ?However, researchers have also found that short exposure to microwaves - such as blanching or thawing - at low power might limit the formation of acrylamide when it's then cooked further. ?"At 100C (212F), there's enough energy to alter the automatic joints between molecules to produce a molecule with much higher energy, which can react with DNA, which induces mutations," says Schwartz.The researchers found that the only difference between the two cooked meals was that the microwaved one retained "slightly" more vitamin C. But the researchers didn't explain why this might be.
?One 2019 study looking at the nutrient loss of broccoli in the microwave pointed out that previous studies varied the cooking time, temperature, and whether or not the broccoli was in water. It found that shorter cooking times (they microwaved the broccoli for one minute) didn't compromise nutritional content. Steaming and microwaving could even increase content of most flavonoids, which are compounds linked to reduced risk of heart disease. ?Yet they also found that microwaving with too much water (such as the amount you'd use to boil) caused a drop in flavonoids. ?Lead researcher Xianli Wu, a scientist at the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center at the US Department of Agriculture, says there isn't one agreed mechanism to explain why microwaving could increase flavonoid content. It could be that microwaving makes flavonoids easier to measure - perhaps by softening the plant tissue, making them easier to extract - rather than increasing their amount
?But there's no straightforward answer as to whether microwaving vegetables will retain more nutrients that any other method. That's because each food is different in terms of the texture and nutrients they contain, according to Wu.
?"Though in general microwaving is a preferred method, the optimum time will be different for different vegetables," Wu says.?"Moderate heat treatment might have been a useful tool in improving health properties of some vegetables," the researchers write. ?A more recent study from 2023 also fared well for microwaves. The researchers compared the impacts of boiling, steaming and microwaving different vegetables and concluded that microwaving was the most effective for retaining nutrients. ?Is heating plastic in a microwave dangerous? ?We often microwave foods in plastic containers and wrapping, but some scientists warn of the risk of ingesting phthalates. When exposed to heat, these plastic additives can break down and leach into food. ?"Some plastic isn't designed for microwaves because it has polymers inside to make it soft and flexible, which melt at a lower temperature and may leach out during the microwave process if it goes beyond 100C (212F)," says Juming Tang, professor of food engineering at Washington State University.?Microwaving mobilises contaminants," says Rolf Halden, professor and director of the Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering at Arizona State University. ?And the potential risks don't necessarily increase with how often an individual microwaves food in plastic containers, Trasande argues - as the relationship is non-linear between the amount of chemical exposure and risk of hormone disruption. ?"The old pedagogy was that the dose mediated poison.Now we understand from multiple studies that low level exposures are where the greatest component of effects happens, so there's no safe level of exposure," Trasande says. ?It's important to remember that, when heating food in a plastic container, exposure also can happen with plastic that doesn't touch the food, such as a lid. ?"Water rises as steam from the food, and then condenses on the underside of the lid, and the extracted chemicals from the lid then fall down into your food, contained in the condensation droplets," Halden says.?In another study, researchers compared the content of phenolics (compounds associated with various health benefits) of various vegetables after being boiled, steamed and microwaved.Exposure also has been linked to fertility issues, asthma and ADHD.