The Hidden Hazards of Microwave Cooking

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.

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Extracted from NEXUS Magazine, Volume 2, #25 (April-May '95).

Originally printed from the April 1994 edition of Acres, USA.
PO Box 8800, Metairie, Louisiana, 70011 USA
Telephone: (504) 889 2100; Fax: (504) 889 2777

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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&degree;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&degree;C to
98&degree;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&degree;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&degree;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?