Hidden Dangers of Microwaved Food
Recent research
shows that microwave oven-cooked food suffers severe
molecular damage. When eaten, it causes abnormal changes in
human blood and immune systems. Not surprisingly, the public
has been denied details on these significant health dangers.
Back in May of
1989, after Tom Valentine first moved to St Paul, Minnesota,
he heard on the car radio a short announcement that bolted
him upright in the driver's seat. The announcement was
sponsored by Young Families, the Minnesota Extension Service
of the University of Minnesota: "Although microwaves heat
food quickly, they are not recommended for heating a baby's
bottle," the announcement said. The bottle may seem cool to
the touch, but the liquid inside may become extremely hot
and could burn the baby's mouth and throat. Also, the
buildup of steam in a closed container such as a baby's
bottle could cause it to explode. "Heating the bottle in a
microwave can cause slight changes in the milk. In infant
formulas, there may be a loss of some vitamins. In expressed
breast milk, some protective properties may be destroyed."
The report went on.
"Warming a
bottle by holding it under tap water or by setting it in a
bowl of warm water, then testing it on your wrist before
feeding, may take a few minutes longer, but it is much
safer."
Valentine asked himself: If an established institution like
the University of Minnesota can warn about the loss of
particular nutrient qualities in microwaved baby formula or
mother's milk, then somebody must know something about
microwaving they are not telling everybody.
A LAWSUIT - In
early 1991, word leaked out about a lawsuit in Oklahoma. A
woman named Norma Levitt had hip surgery, only to be killed
by a simple blood transfusion when a nurse "warmed the blood
for the transfusion in a microwave oven"!
Logic suggests
that if heating or cooking is all there is to it, then it
doesn't matter what mode of heating technology one uses.
However, it is quite apparent that there is more to
'heating' with microwaves than we've been led to believe.
Blood for transfusions is routinely warmed-but not in
microwave ovens!
In the case of Mrs Levitt, the microwaving altered the blood
and it killed her.
Does it not
therefore follow that this form of heating does, indeed, do
'something different' to the substances being heated? Is it
not prudent to determine what that 'something different'
might do?
A funny thing happened on the way to the bank with all that
microwave oven revenue: nobody thought about the obvious.
Only 'health nuts' who are constantly aware of the value of
quality nutrition discerned a problem with the widespread
'denaturing' of our food. Enter Hans Hertel.
HANS HERTEL
In the tiny town of Wattenwil, near Basel in Switzerland,
there lives a scientist who is alarmed at the lack of purity
and naturalness in the many pursuits of modern mankind. He
worked as a food scientist for several years with one of the
many major Swiss food companies that do business on a global
scale. A few years ago, he was fired from his job for
questioning procedures in processing food because they
denatured it.
"The world
needs our help," Hans Hertel told Tom Valentine as they
shared a fine meal at a resort hotel in Todtmoss, Germany.
"We, the scientists, carry the main responsibility for the
present unacceptable conditions. It is therefore our job to
correct the situation and bring the remedy to the world. I
am striving to bring man and techniques back into harmony
with nature. We can have wonderful technologies without
violating nature."
Hans is an
intense man, driven by personal knowledge of violations of
nature by corporate man and his state-supported monopolies
in science, technology and education. At the same time, as
the two talked, his intensity shattered into a warm smile
and he spoke of the way things could be if mankind's immense
talent were to work with nature and not against her.
Hans Hertel is the first
scientist to conceive of and carry out a quality study on
the effects of microwaved nutrients on the blood and
physiology of human beings. This small but well-controlled
study pointed the firm finger at a degenerative force of
microwave ovens and the food produced in them. The
conclusion was clear:
microwave cooking changed the nutrients so that changes took
place in the participants' blood; these were not healthy
changes but were changes that could cause deterioration in
the human systems.
Working with Bernard H.
Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the
University Institute for Biochemistry, Hertel not only
conceived of the study and carried it out, he was one of
eight participants.
"To control as many
variables as possible, we selected eight individuals who
were strict macrobiotic diet participants from the
Macrobiotic Institute at Kientel, Switzerland," Hertel
explained. "We were all housed in the same hotel environment
for eight weeks. There was no smoking, no alcohol and no
sex."
One can readily see that
this protocol makes sense. After all, how could you tell
about subtle changes in a human's blood from eating
microwaved food if smoking, booze, junk food, pollution,
pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and everything else in the
common environment were also present?
"We had one American, one
Canadian and six Europeans in the group. I was the oldest at
64 years, the others were in their 20s and 30s," Hertel
added.
Valentine published the
results of this study in Search for Health in the Spring of
1992. But the follow-up information is available only in a
later edition, and also in Acres, USA.
In intervals of two to five
days, the volunteers in the study received one of the food
variants on an empty stomach. The food variants were: raw
milk from a biofarm (no. 1); the same milk conventionally
cooked (no. 2); pasteurised milk from Intermilk Berne (no.
3); the same raw milk cooked in a microwave oven (no. 4);
raw vegetables from an organic farm (no. 5); the same
vegetables cooked conventionally (no. 6); the same
vegetables frozen and defrosted in the microwave oven (no.
7); and the same vegetables cooked in the microwave oven
(no. 8). The overall experiment had some of the earmarks of
the Pottenger cat studies, except that now human beings were
test objects, the experiment's time-frame was shorter, and a
new heat form was tested.
Once the volunteers were
isolated at the resort hotel, the test began. Blood samples
were taken from every volunteer immediately before eating.
Then blood samples were taken at defined intervals after
eating from the above-numbered milk or vegetable
preparations.
Significant changes were
discovered in the blood of the volunteers who consumed foods
cooked in the microwave oven. These changes included a
decrease in all haemoglobin values and cholesterol values,
especially the HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad
cholesterol) values and ratio. Lymphocytes (white blood
cells) showed a more distinct short-term decrease following
the intake of microwaved food than after the intake of all
the other variants. Each of these indicators point in a
direction away from robust health and toward degeneration.
Additionally, there was a highly significant association
between the amount of microwave energy in the test foods and
the luminous power of luminescent bacteria exposed to serum
from test persons who ate that food. This led Hertel to the
conclusion that such technically derived energies may,
indeed, be passed along to man inductively via consumption
of microwaved food.
"This process is based on
physical principles and has already been confirmed in the
literature," Hertel explained. The apparent additional
energy exhibited by the luminescent bacteria was merely
extra confirmation.
"There is extensive
scientific literature concerning the hazardous effects of
direct microwave radiation on living systems," Hertel
continued. "It is astonishing, therefore, to realise how
little effort has been made to replace this detrimental
technique of microwaves with technology more in accordance
with nature.
"Technically produced microwaves are based on the principle
of alternating current. Atoms, molecules and cells hit by
this hard electromagnetic radiation are forced to reverse
polarity 1 to 100 billion times a second. There are no
atoms, molecules or cells of any organic system able to
withstand such a violent, destructive power for any extended
period of time, not even in the low energy range of
milliwatts.
"Of all the natural
substances-which are polar-the oxygen of water molecules
reacts most sensitively. This is how microwave cooking heat
is generated-friction from this violence in water molecules.
Structures of molecules are torn apart, molecules are
forcefully deformed (called structural isomerism) and thus
become impaired in quality.
HEATING FOOD
"This is contrary to conventional heating of food, in which
heat transfers convectionally from without to within.
Cooking by microwaves begins within the cells and molecules
where water is present and where the energy is transformed
into frictional heat."
The question naturally arises: What about microwaves from
the sun? Aren't they harmful?
Hertel responded: "The
microwaves from the Sun are based on principles of pulsed
direct current. These rays create no frictional heat in
organic substance."
In addition to violent
frictional heat effects (called thermic effects), there are
also athermic effects which have hardly ever been taken into
account, Hertel added.
"These athermic effects are
not presently measurable, but they can also deform the
structures of molecules and have qualitative consequences.
For example, the weakening of cell membranes by microwaves
is used in the field of gene altering technology. Because of
the force involved, the cells are actually broken, thereby
neutralising the electrical potentials-the very life of the
cells-between the outer and inner sides of the cell
membranes. Impaired cells become easy prey for viruses,
fungi and other micro-organisms. The natural repair
mechanisms are suppressed, and cells are forced to adapt to
a state of energy emergency: they switch from aerobic to
anaerobic respiration. Instead of water and carbon dioxide,
hydrogen peroxide and carbon monoxide are produced."
It has long been pointed out
in the literature that any reversal of healthy cell
processes may occur because of a number of reasons, and our
cells then revert from a "robust oxidation" to an unhealthy
"fermentation".
The same violent friction
and athermic deformations that can occur in our bodies when
we are subjected to radar or microwaves, happens to the
molecules in the food cooked in a microwave oven. In fact,
when anyone microwaves food, the oven exerts a power input
of about 1,000 watts or more. This radiation results in
destruction and deformation of molecules of food, and in the
formation of new compounds (called radiolytic compounds)
unknown to man and nature.
Today's established science
and technology argues forcefully that microwaved food and
irradiated foods do not have any significantly higher
"radiolytic compounds" than do broiled, baked or other
conventionally cooked foods-but microwaving does produce
more of these critters. Curiously, neither established
science nor our ever-protective government has conducted
tests-on the blood of the eaters-of the effects of eating
various kinds of cooked foods. Hertel and his group did test
it, and the indication is clear that something is amiss and
that larger studies should be funded. The apparently toxic
effects of microwave cooking is another in a long list of
unnatural additives in our daily diets. However, the
establishment has not taken kindly to this work.
"The first drawing of blood
samples took place on an empty stomach at 7.45 each
morning," Hertel explained. "The second drawing of blood
took place 15 minutes after the food intake. The third
drawing was two hours later."
From each sample, 50
millilitres of blood was used for the chemistry and five
millimetres for the haematology and the luminescence. The
haematological examinations took place immediately after
drawing the samples. Erythrocytes, haemoglobin, mean
haemoglobin concentration, mean haemoglobin content,
leukocytes and lymphocytes were measured. The chemical
analysis consisted of iron, total cholesterol, HDL
cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.
The results of erythrocyte,
haemoglobin, haematocrit and leukocyte determinations were
at the "lower limits of normal" in those tested following
the eating of the microwaved samples.
"These results show anaemic
tendencies. The situation became even more pronounced during
the second month of the study," Hertel added. "And with
those decreasing values, there was a corresponding increase
of cholesterol values."
Hertel admits that stress
factors, from getting punctured for the blood samples so
often each day, for example, cannot be ruled out, but the
established baseline for each individual became the "zero
values" marker, and only changes from the zero values were
statistically determined.
With only one round of test
substances completed, the different effects between
conventionally prepared food and microwaved food were
marginal-although noticed as definite "tendencies". As the
test continued, the differences in the blood markers became
"statistically significant". The changes are generally
considered to be signs of stress on the body. For example,
erythrocytes tended to increase after eating vegetables from
the microwave oven. Haemoglobin and both of the mean
concentration and content haemoglobin markers also tended to
decrease significantly after eating the microwaved
substances.
LEUKOCYTOSIS
"Leukocytosis," Hertel explained, "which cannot be accounted
for by normal daily deviations such as following the intake
of food, is taken seriously by haematologists. Leukocyte
response is especially sensitive to stress. They are often
signs of pathogenic effects on the living system, such as
poisoning and cell damage. The increase of leukocytes with
the microwaved foods was more pronounced than with all the
other variants. It appears that these marked increases were
caused entirely by ingesting the microwaved substances."
The cholesterol markers were
very interesting, Hertel stressed:
"Common scientific belief states that cholesterol values
usually alter slowly over longer periods of time. In this
study, the markers increased rapidly after the consumption
of the microwaved vegetables. However, with milk, the
cholesterol values remained the same and even decreased with
the raw milk significantly."
Hertel believes his study
tends to confirm newer scientific data that suggest
cholesterol may rapidly increase in the blood secondary to
acute stress. "Also," he added, "blood cholesterol levels
are less influenced by cholesterol content of food than by
stress factors. Such stress-causing factors can apparently
consist of foods which contain virtually no cholesterol-the
microwaved vegetables."
It is plain to see that this
individually financed and conducted study has enough meat in
it to make anyone with a modicum of common sense sit up and
take notice.
Food from the microwave oven
caused abnormal changes, representing stress, to occur in
the blood of all the test individuals. Biological
individuality, a key variable that makes a mockery of many
allegedly scientific studies, was well accounted for by the
established baselines.
So, how has the brilliant
world of modern technology, medicine and 'protect the
public' government reacted to this impressive effort?
A GAG ORDER
As soon as Hertel and Blanc announced their results, the
hammer of authority slammed down on them. A powerful trade
organisation, the Swiss Association of Dealers for
Electroapparatuses for Households and Industry, known simply
as FEA, struck swiftly. They forced the President of the
Court of Seftigen, Kanton Bern, to issue a 'gag order'
against Hertel and Blanc. The attack was so ferocious that
Blanc quickly recanted his support-but it was too late. He
had already put into writing his views on the validity of
the studies where he concurred with the opinion that
microwaved food caused the blood abnormalities.
Hertel stood his ground, and
today is steadfastly demanding his rights to a trial.
Preliminary hearings on the matter have been appealed to
higher courts, and it's quite obvious the powers that be do
not want a 'show trial' to erupt on this issue.
In March 1993, the court
handed down this decision based upon the complaint of the
FEA:
"Consideration.
1. Request from the plaintiff (FEA) to prohibit the
defendant (Dr Ing. Hans Hertel) from declaring that food
prepared in the microwave oven shall be dangerous to health
and lead to changes in the blood of consumers, giving
reference to pathologic troubles as also indicative for the
beginning of a cancerous process. The defendant shall be
prohibited from repeating such a statement in publications
and in public talks by punishment laid down in the law.
2. The jurisdiction of the
judge is given according to law.
3. The active legitimacy of
the plaintiff is given according to the law.
4. The passive legitimacy of
the defendant is given by the fact that he is the author of
the polemic [published study] in question, especially since
the present new and revised law allows to exclude the
necessity of a competitive situation, therefore delinquents
may also be persons who are not co-competitors, but may
damage the competing position of others by mere
declarations.
[Apparently, Swiss corporations have lobbied in a law that
nails "delinquents" who disparage products and might do
damage to commerce by such remarks. So far, the US
Constitution still preserves freedom of the press.]
5. Considering the relevant
situation it is referred to three publications: the public
renunciation [sic] of the so-called co-author Professor
Bernard Blanc, the expertise of Professor Teuber [expert
witness from the FEA] about the above-mentioned publication,
the opinion of the public health authorities with regard to
the present stage of research with microwave ovens as well
as to repeated statements from the side of the defendant
about the danger of such ovens.
6. It is not considered of
importance whether or not the polemic of the defendant meets
the approval of the public, because all that is necessary is
that a possibility exists that such a statement could find
approval with people not being experts themselves. Also,
advertising involving fear is not allowed and is always
disqualified by the law. The necessity for a fast
interference is in no case more advised than in the
processes of competition. Basically, the defendant has the
right to defend himself against such accusations. This
right, however, can be denied in cases of pressing danger
with regard to impairing the rights of the plaintiff when
this is requested.
Conclusion - On
grounds of this pending request of the plaintiff, the court
arrives at the conclusion that because of special
presuppositions as in this case, a definite disadvantage for
the plaintiff does exist, which may not easily be repaired,
and therefore must be considered to be of immediate danger.
The case thus warrants the request of the plaintiff to be
justified, even without hearing the defendant. Also, because
it is not known when the defendant will bring further
statements into the public.
The judge is also of the
opinion that because the publications are made up to appear
as scientific, and therefore especially reliable-looking,
they may cause additional bad disadvantages. It must be
added that there does obviously not exist a just reason for
this publication because there is no public interest for
pseudo-scientific unproved declarations. Finally, these
ordered measures do not prove to be disproportionate.
The defendant is prohibited,
under punishment of up to F5,000, or up to one year in
prison, to declare that food prepared in microwave ovens is
dangerous to health and leads to pathologic troubles as also
indicative for the beginning of a cancerous process.
The plaintiff pays the costs. (Signed) President of
the Court of Seftigen Kraemer."
If you cannot imagine this
kind of decision coming from a court in the United States,
you have not been paying attention to the advances of
administrative law.
Hertel defied the court and
has loudly demanded a fair hearing on the truth of his
claims. The court has continued to delay, dodge, appeal and
avoid any media-catching confrontation. As of this writing,
Hans is still waiting for a hearing with media coverage-and
he's still talking and publishing his findings.
"They have not been able to
intimidate me into silence, and I will not accept their
conditions," Hertel declared. "I have appeared at large
seminars in Germany, and the study results have been
well-received. Also, I think the authorities are aware that
scientists at Ciba-Geigy [the world's largest pharmaceutical
company, headquartered in Switzerland] have vowed to support
me in court."
As those powerful special interests in Switzerland who
desire to sell microwave ovens by the millions continued to
suppress open debate on this vital issue for modern
civilisation, new microwave developments blossomed in the
United States.
INFANT DANGER
In the journal Pediatrics (vol. 89, no. 4, April 1992),
there appeared an article titled, "Effects of Microwave
Radiation on Anti-infective Factors in Human Milk".
Richard Quan, M.D. from
Dallas, Texas, was the lead name of the study team. John A.
Kerner, M.D., from Stanford University, was also on the
research team, and he was quoted in a summary article on the
research that appeared in the 25 April 1992 issue of Science
News.
To get the full flavour of
what may lie ahead for microwaving, here is that summary
article:
"Women who work outside the home can express and store
breast milk for feedings when they are away. But parents and
caregivers should be careful how they warm this milk. A new
study shows that microwaving human milk-even at a low
setting-can destroy some of its important disease-fighting
capabilities.
"Breast milk can be
refrigerated safely for a few days or frozen for up to a
month; however, studies have shown that heating the milk
well above body temperature-37°ree;C-can break down not
only its antibodies to infectious agents, but also its
lysozymes or bacteria-digesting enzymes. So, when
paediatrician
John A. Kerner, Jr, witnessed neonatal nurses routinely
thawing or reheating breast milk with the microwave oven in
their lounge, he became concerned.
"In the April 1992 issue of
Pediatrics (Part I), he and his Stanford University
co-workers reported finding that unheated breast milk that
was microwaved lost lysozyme activity, antibodies and
fostered the growth of more potentially pathogenic bacteria.
Milk heated at a high setting (72 degrees Celsius to 98
degrees C) lost
96 per cent of its immunoglobulin-A antibodies, agents that
fend off invading microbes.
"What really surprised him,
Kerner said, was finding some loss of anti-infective
properties in the milk microwaved at a low setting-and to a
mean of just 33.5 degrees C. Adverse changes at such low
temperatures suggest 'microwaving itself may in fact cause
some injury to the milk above and beyond the heating'.
"But Randall M. Goldblum of
the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston
disagrees, saying: 'I don't see any compelling evidence that
the microwaves did any harm. It was the heating.' Lysozyme
and antibody degradation in the coolest samples may simply
reflect the development of small hot spots-potentially 60
degrees C or above-during microwaving, noted Madeleine
Sigman-Grant of Pennsylvania State University, University
Park. And that's to be expected, she said, because microwave
heating is inherently uneven-and quite unpredictable when
volumes less than four millilitres are involved, as was the
case in the Kerner's study.
"Goldblum considers use of a microwave to thaw milk an
especially bad idea, since it is likely to boil some of the
milk before all has even liquefied. Stanford University
Medical Center no longer microwaves breast milk, Kerner
notes. And that's appropriate, Sigman-Grant believes,
because of the small volumes of milk that hospitals
typically serve newborns-especially premature infants."
CHASING A STORY
Journalist Tom Valentine, after chasing this story, found it
interesting that 'scientists' have so many 'beliefs' to
express rather than prove fact. Yet facts eventually snuff
out credential-based conjecture.
Researcher Quan, in a phone
interview, said that he believed the results of research so
far warranted further detailed study of the effects of
microwave cooking on nutrients. The summary sentence in an
abstract of the research paper is very clear:
"Microwaving appears to
be contra-indicated at high temperatures, and questions
regarding its safety exist even at low temperatures."
The final statement of the
study conclusion reads: "This preliminary study suggests
that microwaving human milk could be detrimental. Further
studies are needed to determine whether and how microwaving
could safely be done." Unfortunately, further studies are
not scheduled at this time.
If there are so many
indications that the effects of microwaves on foods can
degrade the foods far above the known breakdowns of standard
cooking, is it not reasonable to conduct exhaustive studies
on living, breathing human beings to determine if it's
possible that eating microwaved foods continuously, as many
people do, can be significantly detrimental to individual
health?
If you wanted to introduce a
herbal supplement into the American mainstream and make any
health claims for it, you would be subjected to exhaustive
documentation and costly research. Yet the microwave-oven
industry had only to prove that the dangerous microwaves
could, indeed, be contained within the oven and not escape
into the surrounding area where the radiation could do
damage to people. The industry must admit that some
microwaves escape even in the best-made ovens. So far, not
one thought has been given by the industry to the
possibility that the nutrients could be so altered as to be
deleterious to health.
Well, this makes sense in a
land that encourages farmers to poison crops and soils with
massive amounts of synthesised chemicals, and encourages
food processors to use additives that enhance shelf-life of
foods regardless of the potential for degrading the health
of the consumer.
How many hundreds of pounds
of microwaved food per capita is consumed in America each
year?
Are we going to continue to
take it from established authority, without question, on the
premise that they know best?
more on EMF/ELF and
Microwave:
Electro-Smog
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