"Gautam John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 11:41 PM, Vardhini Shankar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>> Nooo. Microwaving, ummm, destroys the nutrients in the food. >> >> A claim to the contrary: >> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/health/17real.html > > http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=9 > > "A study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and > Agriculture investigated the effects of various methods of cooking > broccoli. Of all the methods of preparation, steaming caused the least > loss of nutrients. > > Microwaving broccoli resulted in a loss of 97%, 74% and 87% of its > three major antioxidant compounds-flavonoids, sinapics and > caffeoyl-quinic derivatives. In comparison, steaming broccoli resulted > in a loss of only 11%, 0% and 8%, respectively, of the same > antioxidants.
Bovine excrement. What physical mechanism would be at work here? None that I'm aware of that could function. Steaming the broccoli is a way of heating it, so we're not looking at thermochemistry. Since we're not discussing thermochemistry, what's left? Well, we don't have mechanochemistry at play, all we possibly have is photochemistry. Unfortunately, photochemistry isn't going to cut it, either. The microwave band is way too low energy to loft electrons into higher orbitals, so photochemistry is impossible. What does the microwave energy do? It just results in a kick to the vibrational modes of the contents (mostly water) and that gets thermalized. I don't believe the so-called "study" for other reasons, too, including the fact that microwaves are used to heat large organic molecules in organic synthesis and if they caused non-thermal results we'd know by now. The claim is pure crap. Perry -- Perry E. Metzger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
