Does microwaving kill nutrients in food? Is microwaving safe?
Dear Cecil: We have friends who insist they won’t eat microwave-cooked items and refuse to own a microwave oven, claiming it has deleterious effects on the nutritional value of food. I chuckle over their sensitivity–seems most restaurants today serve many items that are cooked rapidly using microwaves, so I’ll bet our friends eat some of these foods unknowingly. My wife, however, is becoming alarmed over their queer beliefs. Please give her peace of mind. Are our friends’ fears groundless, or am I the goat on this one? — Norm, via e-mail Probably your friends are getting worked up over nothing, but this is one subject where you want to resist sweeping pronouncements. On its face, antimicrowave propaganda (you’ll find loads of it on the Web) is none too persuasive–some of these people have yet to comprehend the crucial distinction between ionizing and nonionizing radiation. (Ionizing radiation is the nuclear, i.e., dangerous, kind, which includes X rays, gamma rays, etc; nonionizing i
