Myths and legends

[unixronin]

Everyone knows that microwave-cooked food isn't as nourishing, right?  Because microwaves destroy vitamins?  I've heard that one lots of times, and I'm sure you have too.

Turns out that not only is it not so, but the shoe's on the other foot.  You see, microwaves don't destroy vitamins.  What destroys vitamins is heat, and duration of heat.  Microwave ovens cook food more quickly than traditional cooking methods, and so they actually destroy less of the vitamins.

If you want to destroy the nutritional value of your vegetables, don't microwave them — boil them to mush.  You know, the traditional vegetable-cooking technique.

Comments

YAY!

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I was always sure that one was a damned lie. HURRAY! OTOH, fools have hurt themself by not thoroughly cooking chicken and other meats in microwaves. I do know how to cook meat in a microwave, but I am an experienced cook. Behold my rolling eyes above!

Re: YAY!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yup ... the other thing Everybody Knows about microwave ovens is that they cook food from the inside out. That one's not true either. Microwave ovens cook from the outside in just like every other method. But because Everyone Knows that they cook from the inside out, well, that means when the outside looks done, the inside must be done too, right?

Bzzzzt! Wrong.

[anda.livejournal.com]

Blah blah cite blah blah?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Honestly, don't remember if it was in New Scientist or Scientific American.

[hrrunka]

the traditional vegetable-cooking technique

Certainly seemed traditional as far as the kitchens at school were concerned anyway. If you could recognise the individual brussels sprouts or potatos then they clearly hadn't been boiled for long enough...

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Steam your vegetables.

Steaming is possible in the microwave or on the stove top.

Tastier, retains or enhances nutritional value.

(Also -- wow?! That misconception is still around? WTF. I thought we'd gotten over the "microwaves are a new, fearsome technology that has bizarre, satanistic effects" meme some years ago,)

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

"traditional vegetable-cooking technique":
My MiL boils canned vegetables to "make sure they are cooked". Which is why I think My Husband dis-likes so many vegetables.

Myth Busted!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the traditional cooking technique of the stereotypical working-class British family: "Cook everything until uniformly grey."

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

Which I don't understand. I have several English cookbooks, including "700 years of English Cooking" and I don't see this tendency in any of them.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yes, but people who own cookbooks usually know how to cook. :) Working-class Lancashire or Merseyside families haven't got time for that kind of effete rubbish.

"Grey boiled meat was good enough for great-granddad, and it's bloody well good enough for us!"

[bbullock.livejournal.com]

I prefer to steam them in the microwave.

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I was unaware of the vitamin issue. I am much more aware of the question of proteins being altered by the microwaves so they become unusable by the human body.

Neither makes any difference in how I use the microwave. I can't stand the taste of meat, especially chicken, cooked in it.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I am much more aware of the question of proteins being altered by the microwaves so they become unusable by the human body.

That's a new one on me. Your body doesn't use the proteins intact anyway — your digestive system breaks them down into amino acids.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Cooked vegetables are an abomination unto Nugan.