(image via JMV on Flickr)

The beloved microwave has been touted as a convenient way to cook “healthy” meals during pregnancy. Baked potatoes, vegetables and even some meats can be made edible in the microwave in much less time than it would take to cook a comparable meal in a conventional oven. However, the microwave myth is just one of the many lies that our modern culture has fed us. Cooking in a microwave is harmful to your food and it could even be harmful to your body and your growing baby during pregnancy. These are some of the reasons you should avoid cooking food in a microwave, particularly during pregnancy:

 

    • Microwave ovens are the only cooking implements that require a shield. These machines emit harmful rays of radiation that damage a human body, especially a growing baby. Even though your microwave contains a shield to protect you, you should still not stand in front of one while it is running.

 

    • The nutritional content of your food is changed when you cook it in a microwave. All types of cooking break down certain nutrients while releasing others, but microwaves change food on a molecular level. This can make it more difficult to absorb nutrients from the food, essentially making microwaved meals devoid of any real nutrition.

 

    • Foods cooked in a microwave may pose a tangible health risk. Recent studies have shown that microwaved foods may create health risks, particularly when compared with foods that have been cooked in more conventional ways.

 

It is apparent from all of these reasons that you should avoid microwave cooking in general, but it is especially important to do so during pregnancy. This not only includes the food that you prepare at home, but may require you to avoid certain restaurants that use microwaves to cook certain dishes on their menus.

Avoiding the microwave may sound like a difficult prospect in our modern, convenience-obsessed world, but it doesn’t have to be hard. If you follow the healthy pregnancy diet from the book Healing Our Children, you’ll actually eat much of your food raw or only lightly cooked, so cooking won’t take much longer than it would in a microwave! A little meal planning and preparation time to ensure that your food is properly cooked are all that you really need to guarantee you and your growing baby are getting the essential nutrients you need. Isn’t your baby’s health worth the few extra moments it takes to cook with conventional methods?

For more information on how you can eat the healthiest possible diet during pregnancy – without the “help” of a microwave – check out Healing Our Children. It has complete information on what to eat before, during, and after pregnancy to maintain your own health and that of your growing child.