RE: A view on microwaving

[Guest guest]

>

> Microwaving Your Food Isn't Safe

> by Larry Cook

>

> If you have ever wondered whether or not microwaved food is safe,

>here's an experiment you can do at home. Plant seeds in two pots.

>Water one pot with water that has been microwaved, the other with

>regular tap. The seeds that received microwaved water won't sprout.

>

Hello, I have been reading this group for a week or two.

I was taken aback by that statement. When you read that statement,

did you believe it was true? Did you think it was likely or unlikely

to be true? Did you plan to try it?

(If you tried, it how did you

actually do it? How many seeds to you test, and how many pots? Did

you use stove-boiled water as a control? Loss of dissolved gases

during boiling might have an effect that would not be specifically

due to the microwave. Another thing to try (if you have city water)

would be to leave all the water samples, boiled and unboiled, out

open overnight to let the chlorine go out, the way you would with

water for a fish tank.)

I emailed Larry Cook whose name is at the top of that

essay. He emailed me back to say that he had never tried this

himself. I guess he read it in some other essay. He said many of his

readers had emailed him back to tell him that seeds would sprout in

microwaved water as well as tap water. He said he had taken that

statement out of the version of the essay on his own website.

I tried it using cooled microwave water, tap water, and cooled water

which had been boiled on the stove. The stove-boiled water is

important to rule out changes that are due not specifically to the

microwave action, but to the action of boiling. I didn't put the

seeds in dirt, just soaked them as if I were sprouting them to eat.

They've only barely started to send out a root sprout, but so far

some of the alfalfa seeds and mung bean seeds in each group are

sprouting. So I would say that statement is not true.

(If there is a change in the seeds, I will post it. Also I have

grown bacteria in microwaved water and the bacteria

grow just fine. I have started yeast for bread dough in water warmed

in the microwave, and the yeast has grown as expected.)

I also looked online and found that some plant enthusiasts actually

microwave their moist soil before planting their special seeds to

sterilize it. I think those people would have noticed if the

microwave prevented their prozed seeds from sprouting.

So if you accepted it as true that microwaved water prevents seeds

from sprouting, I hope you will now question it, and maybe question

some of the other pieces of information that appear in online essays.

Marty

[Guest guest]

LOL

We have a microwave, but we only use it to heat up rice socks or damp cloths to use on sore muscles and tension headaches, dry flowers or take some of the moisture out of ceramic slip the kids have molded into some wonderful creation-- that's about it.

I have 5 kidz & three of them are teenagers complete with growing appetites. I cook like I'm feeding a small army; all without the microwave. I don't even think it took a week to adjust to a new routine. Everything we make is from scratch & we utilize a lot of low temp cooking, so there's plenty of time to do all those little in between things. We're moving more toward raw (slowly so DH doesn't get too scared)- it's amazing how much better the food tastes when it actually has enzymes left!

Try it for a week , Sara. you'll be surprised how easy it is to 'do without'. =o)

hugs

buffy

I have yet to find anyone who can tell/show me practical ways to actually *feed* a family, and do all the little things in-between, without one.Then again, maybe I'm just lazy. It's a good possibility.-ST