According to Dr. Cristina Garcia-Viguera, co-author of the study, microwaved broccoli loses 97 percent, 74 percent, and 87 percent of the three major cancer-protecting antioxidant compounds (flavonoids, sinapics and caffeoyl-quinic derivatives). By comparison, steamed broccoli loses 11 percent, 0 percent and 8 percent of the very same antioxidants. In a 1992 article in the journal Pediatrics, a team of researchers from Stanford University reported that re-heating human breast milk in a microwave oven – even at a low setting – can destroy some of its important disease-fighting capabilities. Specifically, it lost lysozyme, which protects against bacterial infection. The fact that adverse changes were found at very low temperatures suggested to the researchers that “microwaving itself may in fact cause some injury to the milk above and beyond the heating”.
Vitamin B-12 is another nutrient that can be destroyed by microwaving. Japanese research reported in Science News in 1998 found that as little as six minutes of microwave cooking destroyed half of the vitamin B-12 in dairy foods and meat, a much higher rate of destruction than other cooking techniques. Microwaving baby formula is also a problem, according to Dr. Lita Lee of Hawaii in the Lancet medical journal in 1989. She wrote that microwaving baby formula converts certain trans-amino acids into synthetic substances like trans-fatty acids. Further, one of the amino acids, L-proline, converts to a substance known to be poisonous to the nervous system and to the kidneys.
-http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/alert.htm#Microwave
more: http://www.mercola.com/article/microwave/hazards.htm?aid=CD12
