Microwaved Food Safety: Is Stove Cooking Safer?

AI Thread Summary
Microwaved food safety is debated, with claims that microwaving causes water molecules to oscillate dangerously after cooking. Critics argue that once food is removed from the microwave, the second law of thermodynamics causes the oscillations to randomize, making it similar to stove cooking. The notion that microwaved food is inherently unsafe lacks scientific backing, as oscillating molecules simply indicate heat. Additionally, the phenomenon of superheating in liquids is not exclusive to microwaves and can occur with any heating method. Overall, the discussion highlights misconceptions about microwave cooking and its safety compared to traditional methods.
SolitonWave
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I need to runs this by some others to make sure it checks out. The guy that runs bugsweeps.com claims that microwaved food is dangerous. He claims that the water molecules in the food keep oscillating at 2450 MHz after the food is removed from the oven and this is somehow dangerous to us. So cooking on a stove (with traditional heat - akin to white noise) is safe and natural.
My point is that once you take the food out of the oven it is out of the gradient created by the field (the direction of rotation created by the microwave). So the 2nd law of thermodymanics would kick in and start adding entropy to the system ,thereby randomizing the vibrations of the water molecules. So after a minute or so you should have same result as heating on a flame.

I know, this is sort of stupid.
 
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I heard a modern myth that some guy was microwaving water and al the energy was going around in the bowl with nothing to diffuse into, and when the guy blew on the water it exploded hot water onto his face. I highly doubt this but maybe possible if you found a fabled perfectly round glass bowl
 
SolitonWave said:
I need to runs this by some others to make sure it checks out. The guy that runs bugsweeps.com claims that microwaved food is dangerous. He claims that the water molecules in the food keep oscillating at 2450 MHz after the food is removed from the oven and this is somehow dangerous to us. So cooking on a stove (with traditional heat - akin to white noise) is safe and natural.
This is BS. Those oscillating molecules - that's what is called heat. To say that more of the molecules are oscillating only means the thing is hotter. I can get the same result by flame heating for longer. Lacking further explanation of what exactly is bad about oscillations at that frequency (which, as you've pointed out, will disperse in time), this claim is bogus.
 
Ki Man said:
I heard a modern myth that some guy was microwaving water and al the energy was going around in the bowl with nothing to diffuse into, and when the guy blew on the water it exploded hot water onto his face. I highly doubt this but maybe possible if you found a fabled perfectly round glass bowl

This is an example of superheating a liquid and has nothing to do with microwaves as much as any other method of heating a liquid above its normal boiling point and then introducing nucleation points.
 
slider142 said:
This is an example of superheating a liquid and has nothing to do with microwaves as much as any other method of heating a liquid above its normal boiling point and then introducing nucleation points.
It is important to note, however, that it is much easier to superheat a liquid in a microwave (where you do not introduce large thermal gradients in the liquid) than with a conventional heat source, where the temperature gradient provides convection flow inside the liquid, making it less likely to superheat.
 
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