This study was published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry 1998 Jan 19;46(1):206-210
Study title and authors:
Effects of Microwave Heating on the Loss of Vitamin B(12) in Foods.
Watanabe F, Abe K, Fujita T, Goto M, Hiemori M, Nakano Y.
Department of Food and Nutrition, Kochi Women's University, Kochi 780, Japan, and Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai 593, Japan.
This study investigated the effects of microwave cooking on the loss of vitamin B(12) in foods, raw beef, pork, and milk.
Low levels of vitamin B12 are implicated in breast cancer, therefore as microwaving your food results in depleted levels of vitamin B12, it may be considered that microwaved food could be a cancer risk.
This study confirms the work of Dr. Bernard Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University Institute for Biochemistry and Dr. Hans Hertel in 1991. Dr. Hertel worked as a food scientist for many years with one of the major global Swiss food companies. He was fired from his job after publishing a research paper indicating that food cooked in microwave ovens could pose a greater risk to health than food cooked by conventional means.
Their study published in 1991 was titled Comparative Study of the Effects on Human Beings of Food Prepared by Conventional Means and in Microwave Ovens. In the study blood samples were taken from volunteers to measure the effects of various types of cooking methods on different foods.
In intervals of two to five days, the volunteers in the study received one of the following food variants on an empty stomach: (1) raw milk; (2) the same milk conventionally cooked; (3) pasteurized milk; (4) the same raw milks cooked in a microwave oven; (5) raw vegetables from an organic farm; (6) the same vegetables cooked conventionally; (7) the same vegetables frozen and defrosted in a microwave oven; and (8) the same vegetables cooked in the microwave oven. Blood samples were taken before and at intervals after eating the milk and vegetables.
Dr. Hertel found that significant changes were discovered in the blood samples from the intervals following the foods cooked in the microwave oven.
He concluded; "The measurable effects on human beings of food treated with microwaves, as opposed to food not so treated, include changes in the blood which appear to indicate the initial stage of a pathological process such as occurs at the start of a cancerous condition."
