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How to Improve Health with Microwave Cooking

The microwave oven is a great cooking appliance that helps you create time for all that you have always wanted to do. This is because it cooks so fast and complete meals get ready so quickly that you will have time to watch your favorite television program and read to your children every night. To top it all, the food cooked in the microwave oven is nutritious with all vitamins and minerals intact. All that it entails is getting the recipe timings right.

The microwave oven has a magnetron tube that is responsible for producing high frequency microwaves out of electricity. Microwaves are the same as radio waves or light waves, and are a form of electromagnetic energy. They are able to act on the food molecules which vibrate and get heated due to the friction caused, and this cooks the food. Since microwaves are tasteless, colorless and odorless they do not affect the taste of the food. They heat only the food and not the container. The microwave oven also stays cool and no matter how long it runs, the kitchen does not get heated up.

Microwave cooking is quick cooking since the food placed inside is exposed to heat for a shorter duration of time. This helps to retain the nutrients of food. Vitamins are heat sensitive and get destroyed when heated, but if placed in the microwave the shorter cooking time helps to retain them to a great extent. Cooking on fire in a pan necessitates addition of water. All the water soluble phyto-chemicals and vitamins go into the water and into the drain, and the benefit is lost for the human body. Microwave ovens need much less water, and often, the water used to wash the vegetables is sufficient to steam or soften them, thus keeping the nutrients inside.

Some Health Benefits with Microwave Ovens

• Cooks fast, and minimum exposure to heat preserves the nutritive value of fruits and vegetables
• Cooks with minimal oil, and low fat food is healthier to eat.
• Vegetables and meats get steamed and cooked rather than fried in oil in the microwave oven.
• Since vegetables do not lose their color or crispness, everyone in the family is tempted to eat the bright multicolored assortment of vegetables prepared in the microwave.
• Heat sensitive vitamins are not completely lost in the microwave since the cooking time is lesser.
• Phyto-chemicals like flavonoids are retained by the food to a greater degree.
• Microwave ovens help to heat food at very high temperatures as well. This helps to kill all the bacteria in meats in particular that can be harmful if not killed with heat.
• Less temptation to deep fry foods, and the quick microwave makes people opt for baked snacks that are low in fat than fried ones.

The fact that microwave ovens create less of a mess, tempts people to use that instead of the cooking gas stove, since that would mean cleaning the stove, the pan, the palte and all around. On the other hand, the lazy person will prefer putting his food in a plate and into the microwave oven. The result subsequently is improved health with greater nutritive foods being consumed.