Don’t trust Internet doctors.

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While researching microwaves for our JES Restaurant Equipment buying guide, I came across article after article[1][2][3] that claimed microwaves do terrible things to your health. They zap nutrients out of your food! They’re radioactive! There’s a small chance that they WILL give you cancer!

I was skeptical. If microwaves truly are killing us, why am I just now hearing about it? I went through these sites’ sources and quickly discovered a pattern. Most of the articles linked back to a single page, an opinion piece on Huffington Post written in 2010 by a guy named Dr. Joseph Mercola. The article is titled “Is This Common Kitchen Appliance Harming Your Health?” and reading it, I quickly learned that the appliance in question is the microwave and the answer to the title is “Oh, deary me, yes!”

Dr. Joseph Mercola at least dresses like a trustworthy guy.

My gut told me this guy was making stuff up. I mean, I’ve read enough clickbait articles written by Internet doctors to know that these guys are usually hucksters who’ll tell any lie to get you to buy the new wonder cure they’re peddling. But then again, this Dr. Joseph Mercola seemed to be everywhere. In addition to articles posted on his very polished website, Dr. Mercola has several pieces featured on Huffington Post, he’s published studies in peer-reviewed journals, and he’s been cited by the NYTimes as an expert on health [4]. Sure, these articles redirect the reader to his website where you can buy treatments to all the ailments he writes about. But so what? Maybe he’s genuinely trying to make people healthier.

My intuition about these sorts of things has been wrong before, so I gave Dr. Mercola the benefit of the doubt, and with a somewhat open mind, I read his article. In it, he claims that microwaves “zap the nutrients right out of your food,” which leaves it, your zapped food, “inert at best and carcinogenic at worst.” He goes on to talk about radiation leakage, toxins leaching from plastic, subatomic things called biophotons, and about how it was “the Nazis [who] invented the first microwave-cooking device” [5].

Wow. If what Dr. Mercola says is true, microwaves are one of the most dangerous things someone could put in their home. I guess it’s a good thing, then, that he’s lying. By the end of the article, I was convinced that not only are microwaves safe but also that Dr. Joseph Mercola is a smelly, lying turd.

So I did the research to back up my hypothesis. Here, I present my findings on the safety of microwave ovens and on whether Dr. Joseph Mercola portrays things truthfully or is just some quack who’d cite any conspiracy theory he could find to trick people into fearing a perfectly safe, FDA-regulated device just so that they might visit Mercola.com and buy a vial of his overpriced snake oil.

“Microwaves zap the nutrients out of your food.”

Fact check: Misleading

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The reason why licensed physician Dr. Joseph Mercola keeps using such an unscientific word, “zap,” is not because he doesn’t understand the mechanics behind microwaves—he does. He’s using that word because it makes microwave ovens sound alien. Even though these things are found in 90% of American homes, most people don’t understand how they work. So here’s a quick lesson on cooking with electromagnetism.

flash Microwave ovens work by emitting waves that cause the polar molecules inside the oven cabinet, water molecules mostly, to oscillate and gain energy and heat up. As you know, heat always moves from warm to cold—in the case of the microwave, water molecules transfer their heat to the rest of the food until the timer dings and your leftovers are ready to be eaten. That’s it. Microwaves are not mini nuclear reactors, they’re just a different type of oven.

Dr. Mercola, however, would have you believe a microwave is like some sort of Flash Gordon ray gun, which disintegrates the vitamins in your food and turns everything else into glowing radioactive waste. According to an article on his website, “there are no atoms, molecules or cells of any organic system able to withstand the violent, destructive power [of microwaves]. Structures of molecules are torn apart. Molecules are then forcefully deformed and thus become impaired in quality”[6].

Microwaving vegetables is actually one of the healthiest ways to cook

It pains me to say this, but what the internet doctor says here isn’t technically a lie. Microwaves do tear the structures of nutrients apart and rearrange them into different forms. Rearranging molecules is what cooking is. There isn’t a method of heating food that exists that doesn’t destroy nutrients. So whether you use a microwave, a convection oven, a stovetop, a grill, or a steamer, the food’s nutrients will denature and become less useful. The FDA—whose sole purpose is to keep people safe—says that microwave energy “is changed to heat as it is absorbed by food, and does not make food ‘radioactive’ or ‘contaminated'” [7]. The FDA probably had to make this clarification because of people, like Dr. Mercola, who spread crazy misinformation.

This whole heat-destroys-nutrients is why nutritionists tell you to eat vegetables raw. It’s funny, because microwaving is actually one of the healthiest ways to cook. Since the vegetables are being heated for a much shorter amount of time, they actually retain more nutrients. Most doctors would recommend microwaving [8]. Most doctors.

“Microwaves leak radiation.”

Fact Check: False

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Did you know that every single microwave, residential or commercial, manufactured within the past 44 years has been regulated to be totally safe around humans? Microwaves that leak radiation just don’t exist. Dr. Mercola couldn’t weave around this fact, so he outsourced his lies to a third party. In his article, the doctor quotes Powerwatch, a small “non-profit” that sells electromagnetic detection equipment through its sister website. [9] They say, “Current regulations require that a microwave oven leak no more than 5 mW/cm². We do not know whether these levels are really safe. Ovens should be checked regularly, at least annually, to pick up any microwave leakage from the seals.

The thing is that we do know whether those levels are safe! According to several published scientific studies [10][11][12] and the American Cancer Society[13], that amount of microwave radiation is way too minuscule to do any harm to humans. These regulations have been in place since 1971, so unless your microwave is over 45 years old or its door has fallen off, you are guaranteed safe from radiation exposure. End of argument.

Unless your microwave is over 45 years old or its door has fallen off, you are guaranteed safe from radiation exposure.

I can’t help but note though that on the FDA website, they make a quick note about companies like Powerwatch. “A word of caution about the microwave testing devices being sold to consumers: FDA has tested a number of these devices and found them generally inaccurate and unreliable.”[7]

“Carcinogenic toxins can leach out of plastic and into your food.”

Fact check: Misleading

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EvilTupperware Dr. Joseph Mercola (whose website also includes gems like “Never Mind Don’t Pick Your Nose: Boogers May be Good for You,” “Does Water Go Bad?” and “Why I Consumed My Own Blood” [14][15][16]) rightfully points out that if you microwave food in certain plastic containers, chemicals in those containers—BPA, PET, and benzene—can leach into your food. These chemicals are, in fact, carcinogens. This is all true.

So will heating up food inside a tupperware container kill you and your family? Absolutely not. As Harvard’s Health Publication points out, “There’s no single substance called ‘plastic. That term covers many materials made from an array of organic and inorganic compounds.'”[17] Some plastic is safe to microwave while some isn’t. Harvard Health lists different items that are guaranteed safe to put in a microwave oven and items that you should avoid.

Safe

Glass and ceramic bowls
Paper plates, towels, napkins
Wax and parchment paper
Microwave safe plastic

Unsafe

Brown paper bags
Cold-storage plastic containers (e.g., sour cream tub)
One-time-use plastic containers
Foam insulated cups, bowls, and plates

The plastic found in cling wrap, water bottles, Frisbees, and PVC pipes will leak toxins when microwaved. The plastic in Tupperware and restaurant food storage containers will not leak toxins when microwaved. Harvard Health goes on to say that “Only containers that pass a strict [FDA] test can display a microwave-safe icon, the words ‘microwave safe,’ or words to the effect that they’re approved for use in microwave ovens.” A good rule of thumb is to either use a container marked “Microwave safe” or just transfer the food to a ceramic dish before microwaving.

Dr. Mercola never mentions that most plastic that people put in microwaves is safe.

“Nazis are credited with inventing the first microwave.”

Fact check: False

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The microwave oven was invented by the American Percy Spencer and released in 1947, two years after the collapse of Nazi Germany [18]. Why would you even make up something like that?

“There are possible microwave effects on your biophotons.”

Fact check: Come again?

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Dr. Joseph Mercola devotes an entire section to discussing how microwaves “can potentially destroy biophotons.” You’re probably asking yourself, what exactly is a biophoton? Quite an astute question. I have a degree in biology and none of my professors ever once mentioned biophotons. It stands to reason that either biophotons are so complex that they’re completely avoided in college curricula, or, just as likely, biophotons don’t exist at all.

Microwaving vegetables is actually one of the healthiest ways to cook

What I’ve been able to gather from his website is that biophotons are invisible particles that surround each human body like an aura in something called the biophoton field. Biophotons in the biophoton field supposedly communicate with one another and give your body its vitality and sense of well-being. “One single biophoton,” Dr. Mercola writes, “can carry more than four megabytes of information.” [19] Incredible! That’s more than three floppy discs worth of storage in a single subatomic particle! Unbelievable!

In his microwave article, Dr. Mercola speculates that eating microwaved food reduces the body’s output of biophotons. But don’t fret! It just so happens that biophotons can be increased by ingesting a special, hard-to-find supplement called “Rhodiola Extract” and—wouldn’t you know it!—Mercola.com sells Rhodiola Extract! A 30-day supply costs only $17.97! Save $8 when you buy a case of three! Deals like these are almost too crazy to be true!