Microwaving Veggies

Great question! I don't know why they didn't test the results of steaming veggies. I'll ask the corresponding author right now.

Best regards,

David

I did follow up as I said I would. But the correspondence was less than satisfactory. My first message to the lead author was:

"Great research! I just reviewed it in "Microwaving Veggies" at http://www.healthcentral.com/diabetes/c/17/69579/microwaving-veggies

"But one of my correspondents asks why you didn't include steaming as a seventh way of cooking. You mention steaming in passing, but that's all. I personally have always thought that steaming was the best way to cook vegetables."

She replied, "Thank you very much for your mesage.
The steaming is iincluded in the paper"

Then, I wrote again, "Dear Professor Murcia,

"I appreciate your reply. Thank you.

"But in the paper AS PUBLISHED at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122267406/HTMLSTART the word steam or steamed or steaming appears only one time. It is in this sentence:

"Because modern day consumers seek to avoid aggressive cooking methods which may affect the functionality of foods, there is growing interest in the phytochemical profiles and antioxidant activities of cooked (boiled, microwaved, steamed, griddled, fried, and baked) vegetables.

"When you list the cooking treatments they are:

"Boiling       Pressure-cooking       Microwave cooking (medium power)       Baking (200 °C)       Griddling       Frying

"Steaming -- at least in this country -- is quite different from pressure cooking, which you define as, "Pressure-cooking: vegetables (500 g) were placed in a pressure cooker (stainless steel, 22 cm diameter, Magefesa®, Zaragoza, Spain), containing water (300 mL) and a pressure valve for high pressure-cooking."

"A pressure cooker does, of course, use steam. But steaming, as we do it here, is not under pressure.

"Wikipedia has a good article about steaming at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steaming (and a different article about pressure cooking).

"Is steaming as such not used in Spain?"

I sent that to her 5 days ago, and she did not reply. Sorry.

David

Dear Debb,

That's an important point for your kids to understand. You might want to read some parts of this article by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "Plastics and the Microwave" to your kids. It's at http://www.fda.gov/FDAC/features/2002/602_plastic.html

Best regards,

David

oh i did, i even copied it off of the computer but they just laugh at me and tell me that i am over reacting.  i did notice that my daughter is using a glass bowl to heat the kids leftovers in now.  plus she doesn't like to ruin her plastic bowls so she has stopped using them in the microwave.  i have to admit when i was young i never listened to my elders either.  there are some good things to say about age.  lol !!!