Microwave products How harmful can a microwave be?

The microwave is a popular home appliance. Who has little time in the preparation of food, like to fall back on the device. Now, however, there are health reservations against the use. So we went into more detail about how a microwave could actually harm your health. Some experts gave answers.

Why is the food heated so fast??
Microwave radiation at an approximate frequency of 2.45 gigahertz provides for the rapid heating. Are the foods contaminated afterwards? And what about the radiations that could possibly escape?

How unhealthy is the microwave? Picture: Alexey Rotanov-fotolia

Margret Morlo of the Association for Nutrition and Dietetics (VFED) in Bocholt says: "Food from the microwave is harmless to health". Ina Stelljes from the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) confirms to "t-Online.de": "Safeguards ensure that only very little radiation reaches the outside during operation". However, according to the expert, it may happen that small rays emerge near the screen and the doors. However, there are limit values ​​that manufacturers must comply with. This is five milliwatts per square centimeter at a distance of five centimeters from the surface of the device.

No studies prove health risk
"I am not aware of any studies that suggest that microwave ovens are harmful to human health. However, one has to keep in mind that microwave ovens have to comply with certain limit values, and that this of course also applies, provided that these limit values ​​are met, "says dr. rer. nat. Sarah Drießen from the Research Center for Bioelectromagnetic Interaction (femu) in RWTH Aachen.

Nevertheless, it can not be denied that it actually comes to radiation. Therefore, especially on the Internet many different opinions are circulating on this topic. It often comes to mobile phone comparison. The smartphone is also suspected, for example, brain tumors to promote massive use. The effects of electromagnetic waves or fields on human health are therefore also the subject of scientific debate. However, it is not easy to find sufficiently secure information.

Mobile phone radiation versus microwave
"If I want to compare microwaves from microwave ovens to mobile phones, then it is true that microwaves are very similar in frequency. However, maybe the difference is that I have to hold my phone to my ear all the time while talking on the phone and that's why I'm also more exposed to these microwaves; for a longer time than when I make the food warm in my microwave. Because I do not look into my microwave all the time. And that's why I'm not so close to the device all the time and not so exposed to these frequencies or microwaves. " Drießen.

What about the food after it has been heated by the rays?
"Microwaves are among the non-ionizing rays. We as scientists even speak of electromagnetic fields, we are not talking about radiation at all. And that's why food can not be contaminated in the same sense, "Dr. Drießen.

Due to the strong heating, the vitamins are destroyed
Accordingly, the food and the preparation itself are safe. But are the heated foods still healthy? In fact, one can no longer speak of healthy foods because most vitamins are heat sensitive. The intense heating reduces the vitamins between 40 and a whopping 80 percent. So who consumes a lot of microwave food, should pay attention to an additional vitamin intake by fruits and vegetables.

"In my opinion, the microwave is less a cooking process than a regeneration process. If I have frozen broccoli, for example, which are already blanched at the company that made the frozen broccoli, then I can heat them up wonderfully in the microwave, "says Prof. em. Dr.-Ing. Elmar H. Schlich, Professorship for Process Technology in Food and Service Companies, Koblenz, Gießen.

Is it possible to bake in the microwave? "So all the foods that are usually baked or fried in the oven, from cakes to meat dishes, like fried chicken or pizza, are not crunchy in the microwave. There is no tanning reaction, no crust is formed. And that's why such foods in the microwave taste very bland and remain flabby, "says Ute Gomm from the consumer information service AID.

Conclusion: The microwave is harmless on the whole. For comparison, phoning with cell phones, confirmed by some studies, is probably more dangerous. The food can be prepared quickly. The users save a lot of time. Those who eat almost exclusively with microwaved food should bear in mind that, for example, vitamin loss is up to 80 percent. Accordingly, users should pay attention to a compensatory diet. (Sb)