Toss the microwave ovens - the sooner the better! I would imagine that most of us have seen warnings about using microwave ovens for some time. The first ones I recall were way back in the radical seventies, when I learned that our standards for allowable microwaves were 100's of times less stringent than the world leading authorities in microwaves - the Soviet Union (the same folks that constantly bombarded our embassy in Moscow with microwaves). I also read reports that the incidence of cataracts among microwave users was alarmingly high - especially those that stood close to the microwave while it was in operation. And what made the cataracts really stand out was that they were "anterior cataracts" which formed further within the eye than normal cataracts which formed near the lens surface. Hard to miss the connection with microwave ovens, which cook food from the inside out.

I recall seeing a Dr. Edward Fujimoto (manager of the Wellness Program) at the Castle hospital on a TV program where he explained this health hazard. He was talking about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers.

This applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat and plastics re leases dioxins into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Dioxins are carcinogens and highly toxic to the cells of our bodies. Instead, he recommends using glass, Corning Ware, or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, without the dioxins.

So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He said we might remember when some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

To add to this, Saran wrap placed over foods as they are nuked, with the high heat, actually drips poisonous toxins into the food, use paper towels.

I had heard those warnings before, at least the ones about dioxins from the plastic. For proof that microwaves do something to plastic, just cook a dinner a bit longer than recommended and see where the plastic melts and turns to some kind of slag, and also mixes in with your food! Of look at some of your old Tupperware so-called microwavable dishes that have been used a long time and look at the mottled and dimpled surfaces where repeated zapping has altered the plastic. What I had not seen before though was the warning about freezing water bottles.

After getting this latest warning, I decided to not just put my blinders on and continue making carcinogens. I thought, OK, I will just use corning ward or tempered glass. Just to make sure, I did some checking on microwaves. What I found was startling!

To put it quite simply, whereas traditional cooking heats food with temperature and cooks food from the outside in, micro waved food is cooked from the inside out by bombarding the food with microwaves. Furthermore, microwaving alters food and creates chemical compounds that the human body has not evolved or adapted to handle.

I found that scientific clinical studies had been conducted by the Russians (THE microwave authorities) the Swiss and the Germans. In some instances these studies have been suppressed by industry, particularly where industry had charges brought against a researcher in Switzerland, and, after initially having the researcher convicted, fined and given a gag order, industry lost on appeal and had to pay the researcher for damages.

Here are the consensus conclusions of the studies conducted in the three countries:

1). Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term - permanent - brain damage by "shorting out" electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue].

2). The human body cannot metabolize [break down] the unknown by-products created in micro waved food.

3). Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating micro waved foods.

4). The effects of micro waved food by-products are residual [long term, permanent] within the human body.

5). Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all micro waved food is reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the human body absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down.

6). The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens.

7). Micro waved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths [tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increased rate of colon cancer in America.

8). The prolonged eating of micro waved foods causes cancerous cells to increase in human blood.

9). Continual ingestion of micro waved food causes immune system deficiencies through lymph gland and blood serum alterations.

10). Eating micro waved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability, and a decrease of intelligence."

Perhaps instead of thinking of the minutes we save from the microwaves, we should think of the years and the nutrition we may be losing! My suggestion: if you want to save time, try a good convection oven. Whatever you cook with, do not overcook. It costs nutrients and causes carcinogens, even in foods besides meats