Family! Microwave ovens can really cook, and they are healthier than boiling water

Nowadays, various popular small household appliances are emerging one after another, and many people have long forgotten the microwave oven by Daming Lake.

Once a top star in the kitchen, he has now fallen to the point of either gathering dust in a corner or lying on Xianyu.

If you can even heat up the leftovers, you’re doing pretty well.

Seeing how wronged the child is, we have to stand up and say something!

To be honest, the microwave oven is really a seriously underestimated kitchen appliance.

Many people think it is an ordinary tool for heating up leftovers, but in fact it makes cooking quick and convenient, and can be called a culinary whirlwind.

In addition, you will definitely not expect -

Microwave heating is highly efficient and takes less time, so compared to traditional frying, stir-frying or boiling, less nutrients are lost in food, so your health is a guaranteed win!

Microwaves are a type of electromagnetic wave. They do not generate heat themselves, but they can make polar molecules in food (such as water molecules) move back and forth billions of times per second, generating heat through friction, thereby cooking themselves.

The traditional cooking method transfers heat from the outside to the inside, while microwave cooking heats the inside and outside of food together, greatly reducing the time required to achieve the same degree of doneness.

Image source: Business Insider

Let’s go and see its true power today. At the end of the article, we have also prepared 5 “quick microwave recipes”.

Collect it now and let your microwave oven stand up and work!

Microwaving vegetables is healthier than boiling them

Why do we eat vegetables? For their vitamins, dietary fiber and antioxidants.

Dietary fiber is fine, and relatively stable heating will not do much harm to it.

But vitamins and antioxidants are in danger, either because they are afraid of heat or are easily soluble in water. Not to mention frying or stir-frying, they are easily lost even when boiled.

Research has found that when the same degree of doneness is achieved, the vitamin C retention rate of microwaved vegetables is significantly higher than that of boiled vegetables , and is not inferior to healthy steamed vegetables.

There are also antioxidant flavonoids in vegetables, which are associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Microwaves can also retain it very well, and the flavonoid content may even increase instead of decrease.

Under rapid internal heating conditions, the cell wall of plant tissues is destroyed and the secondary structure is lost, causing some of the bound flavonoids to become free forms, thereby increasing the test results. In addition, the efficient heating of microwaves inactivates the enzymes that cause the loss of flavonoids, thereby reducing the loss to a certain extent.

In addition, some experiments have specifically studied the impact of cooking methods on the antioxidant capacity of vegetables.

It was found that after microwave treatment, the antioxidant capacity of vegetables such as bitter melon, zucchini, celery, and artemisia was improved.

That is to say, if you want to eat vegetables healthily in the future, please also look at the microwave oven.

Prepare a dish in 5 minutes, which not only helps you lock in nutrients, but also saves you one pot to wash. A lazy person’s delight!

Image source: Photographed by the author

Microwaved meat retains more beneficial ingredients and produces less harmful substances

Poultry and livestock meat can provide high-quality protein, B vitamins and other nutrients.

Protein is not a big problem, as proper heating can improve its digestibility, but B vitamins are sensitive to heat and can be easily destroyed.

You could try the microwave, too.

The researchers heated fresh chicken in an ordinary microwave oven, a convection microwave oven, and a traditional oven to a center temperature of 79°C, measured the retention rate of vitamin B1, and found that both microwave heating methods were higher than the oven.

In addition, we always advise people to eat less barbecue, because charcoal grilling can easily produce carcinogens such as benzopyrene.

In comparison, microwaves are relatively "harmless to animals and livestock."

The experiment found that no benzopyrene was detected after heating the pork chunks in a 900W variable frequency microwave oven for 5 minutes or 6 minutes.

In fact, at this microwave power, it only takes 70 to 80 seconds to cook pork chunks thoroughly. The experiment deliberately extended the heating time but no benzopyrene was detected.

Of course, cooking meat in a microwave is definitely not as convenient as cooking vegetables.

For example, you need to cut the meat into small pieces to avoid uneven heating.

Because microwaves heat very quickly, if an inexperienced child wants to achieve the best results, it is recommended to set the time in segments, such as heating for 2 minutes first, and then heating for 1 minute.

Don’t panic, there are some secrets for making delicious microwave meat below.

Friends who have already mastered the trick of cooking microwave meat are also welcome to share their experiences in the comment section.

Microwaving fish has less effect on beneficial fatty acids

Fish is a good source of high-quality protein, vitamins and unsaturated fatty acids.

Especially some marine fish, which are rich in ω-3 unsaturated fatty acids, can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Since it is called unsaturated, it means that it is unstable and easily oxidized when exposed to heat.

Come on, the microwave comes in handy again!

Studies have found that microwave treatment with a short processing time can better retain ω-3 unsaturated fatty acids.

Audisio et al. used a microwave oven and a traditional electric stove to cook cod. The results showed that the preservation rate of unsaturated fatty acids after microwave cooking reached 92%.

Image source: Photographed by the author

And my friends, as the most efficient cooking tool known to date, microwave ovens can not only preserve the nutrients in food well, but they are also very convenient.

Cooking is super fast and there is no annoying fumes. You don’t even have to wash the pot. It’s a blessing for lazy people. But it’s good enough to work hard, how can I let it sit idle!

Master these skills to thoroughly understand the microwave oven

According to our observation, most friends who leave their microwave ovens idle have had some "crash" experiences.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

It’s easy. Once we understand the principle of microwaves, we don’t have to be afraid.

As mentioned earlier, microwaves, an electromagnetic wave, can make the polar molecules in food (water molecules are the most susceptible to microwaves among polar molecules) vibrate violently, generate heat through friction, and thus cook the food.

What does this mean? Microwaves cook food quickly, but they also heat unevenly.

In view of these two characteristics, we have compiled a wave of practical tips, and you will understand after reading them.

Now that I have finished talking about the theory, I will give you some practical applications.

5 recipes and 5 types of ingredients. Once you master them, you can apply them to other situations and easily prepare a whole table of dishes using the microwave. It’s worth collecting!

Okay, that’s all the useful information for today. I hope this discussion can help you understand microwave ovens in a new way.

Of course, its skills are far more than what is described in this article. If you have more tricks to make microwave ovens more useful, please don’t hesitate to show them off in the comments section.

Don’t waste this technology that benefits lazy people, use it!

References

[1] Wan Benyi, Dong Haizhou, Liu Chuanfu. Study on the effect of microwave heating on vitamins in food[J]. Cereals, Oils and Food Science and Technology, 2001(05):45-47.

[2] He Xiangyi, He Hongju, Fan Zhihong, Wang Rong, Wang Lu. Effects of cooking methods on flavonoids and carotenoids in three leafy vegetables[J]. Journal of Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology, 2016, 16(07): 276-282.

[3] Tian Diying, Yang Ronghua. Effects of different heat treatments on antioxidant activity of vegetables[J]. Food and Fermentation Industries, 2005(06):30-32.

[4]Uherová R., Hozová B., Smirnov V.. The effect of microwave heating on retention of some B vitamins[J]. Food Chemistry, 1993, 46(3).

[5]Garcia MT. Cooking-freezing-reheating (CFR) of sardine fillets: Effect of different cooking and reheating procedures on the proximate and compositions. Food Chemistry, 2003,83(3):349-356.

[6] Zhang Tianyi. Study on the effect of microwave heating on protein and benzopyrene formation in pork[D]. South China University of Technology, 2013.

[7] Li Nannan, Fan Zhihong. Effects of cooking and processing on the nutritional value of fish[J]. Chinese Food and Nutrition, 2011, 17(02): 82-85.

Planning and production

Source: This article is authorized to be reproduced from DingXiang Life Research Institute (ID: DingXiangLab). No secondary reproduction is allowed without authorization.

Review丨Li ​​Chun National Registered Nutritionist

Editor: Wang Mengru