What are the known risks & side effects of using microwave ovens for cooking and heating our food?
The microwave is pretty safe. When cooking chicken, it is best to use pieces that are the same size and thickness. This helps prevent undercooking part and overcooking the other part. And as one other poster pointed out, using materials that are not microwave safe (some plastic containers or wraps) can cause the material to leach into the food being cooked.
When using a microwave to reheat food you have to make sure that you stir it regularly to ensure that it has been heated through evenly. This is important as microwaves do not heat evenly through (ie. the outside of the food is heated faster than the centre) as do ovens. It has always been recommended not to cook vegetables in the microwave as all (or at least the majority) of the nutrients in them are lost (presumably into the water that you cook them in). I did hear recently, though, that if you use the SMALLEST amount of water necessary that there is no real difference (health-wise) between this and boiling them. These are not really risks and side effects as much as recommendations for microwave cooking, but making sure that the food is evenly heated through is important. Nasty bacteria can survive the reheating process otherwise, or at the very least, you can be left with steaming ‘hot-spots’ that can give a nasty burn to your mouth if you stumble across them unnexpectedly!
