Last night, I Googled “nutrition microwaved vegetables”. One of the top results was “The Claim: Microwave Ovens Kill Nutrients in Food” (clearly, even the NYT recognizes a figure of speech when it sees one). From that article:

“Since microwave ovens often use less heat than conventional methods and involve shorter cooking times, they generally have the least destructive effects. The most heat-sensitive nutrients are water-soluble vitamins, like folic acid and vitamins B and C, which are common in vegetables.

“In studies at Cornell University, scientists looked at the effects of cooking on water-soluble vitamins in vegetables and found that spinach retained nearly all its folate when cooked in a microwave, but lost about 77 percent when cooked on a stove. They also found that bacon cooked by microwave has significantly lower levels of cancer-causing nitrosamines than conventionally cooked bacon.

“When it comes to vegetables, adding water can greatly accelerate the loss of nutrients. One study published in The Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture in 2003 found that broccoli cooked by microwave — and immersed in water — loses about 74 percent to 97 percent of its antioxidants. When steamed or cooked without water, the broccoli retained most of its nutrients.

“THE BOTTOM LINE Microwave ovens generally do not destroy nutrients in food.”

In addition to Cornell, Harvard and others have conducted similar studies with similar results – easily found via search engine.

If you don’t own a microwave then this post is fairly obviously not as relevant for you.

Or perhaps I’ll sit back and pontificate on its benefits, rather than actually looking into it. I *am* a woman, after all :)

@David: Please quit it with the sexist comments. Yes, even if you’re trying to be self-deprecating, it’s still sexist.

I certainly like the kettle but it is not as efficient as a microwave.

We’ve found that popping corn on the stovetop is just as fast as microwaving & you don’t have to time it quite so exactly to avoid burning it. Plus you don’t have the lingering smell.

Various studies have more or less completely failed to determine whether or not microwaving actually destroys nutrients any more than any other cooking method does. That is: some studies say that it does, some that it doesn’t. But this is how science works, which is doubtless why it attracts more men than women since the former prefer not to know what is really going on, otherwise they could not pontificate about what might be. Probably, what destroys nutrients is simply the heat involved in cooking and the fact that they dissolve.

A good way to use a microwave to cook some vegetables is not to use any water at all. For broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and the like, just rinse them in cold water, dry them with kitchen towel, put them in a microwave-safe container and zap them at full power for about three minutes. (This idea stolen from Robert Wolke, author of “What Einstein Told His Cook”, a jolly good read.)

I’m just pointing out if you are talking about saving money, you can’t (as usual) take out part of the money spending equation.

I can’t imagine the microwave can boil water faster than a kettle, and it would be more dangerous to pour it in your pot or mug, since kettle is specifically designed for this.

So, can anyone point to proof that microwaves actually harm the nutritional value of food? I have always found this claim to be pretty dubious.

Oh, and no one has mentioned that they cause cancer. I also find that hard to believe.

Our stove setup is a little unusual in that it is the only appliance in our house that uses propane. We live in a rural area and the minimum annual contract with the propane company is just over $50 – most of that is the delivery fee. So we almost can’t use the stove too much because the minimum fee is owed whether we use the propane or not. In winter, I use the oven quite often for casseroles, granola, and other baked goods, and we welcome the additional heat source.

That said, we still use our microwave multiple times a day to reheat leftovers, soften stale bread, and to steam veggies. For those who decry the microwave’s effect on nutrition, if I recall correctly, Cooks Illustrated found that the quick cooking time in a microwave did a better job of preserving nutrients than cooking veggies in a pan on the stove.

We also have a microwave, but usually it’s positioned on the wall, not on the counter. I would never consider heating water in it for things like pasta for fear the container might slip and result in a bad scald.

One of the first things our boys bought after moving into our house was an electric kettle! It can be found at Amazon and imagine shops like Walmart carry them.

Overseas, ours cost under $20 and seem to last forever. We are big tea drinkers and boil water for at least five cups and two pots every day. The kettle can boil two liters of water in less than two minutes.

Yes, for pasta, just boil a kettle full of water, pour it into the pot you want to cook the pasta in, turn on the stovetop and the water will come back to the boil in just a few seconds. Then you can add your pasta.

An electric kettle looks like a jug with a lid, so it’s really easy to just pour the water out into a saucepan, teapot, or whatever else you want boiling water for.

They really save a lot of time (and most probably money) compared to the stove top, and they also turn themselves off (and beep) when the water has boiled. I think mine takes 1 minute to boil a liter of water. Some have a “keep warm” setting for after the water has boiled.

Also, some studies have shown that microwaving alters the food and can make it harmful to your health. Take that with a grain of salt, as pretty much all studies are biased and proved/disproved far too often.