Quote:
Originally Posted by TrAI
High temperatures can create carcinogens and release substances from the cooking gear, cooking in water can wash/disolve out nutrients, coking over fires or smoking food can introduce unhealthy materials from the smoke, and so on. I would think that these problems would actually be less likely to occur with microwave ovens.
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When meat is roasted next to a fire (not over it, so it's not subject to the harmful smoke from the burned grease), which cooks the meat, renders the fat into grease which drips into the fire, burning it (instead of leaving a mess). Many fruits and vegetables should be eaten raw. A few, such as potatos, should be cooked, both to make it more digestible, as well as to remove (mostly) harmful toxins (glycoalkaloids). Exposure to light, and age, cause greening due to the growth of chlorophyl, and seed tubers (the "eyes" of the potato), both of which contain much higher concentrations than the main part of the potato itself. Interestingly, the highest concentration is found immediately beneath the skin, which is perhaps one reason why, intuitively, we began skinning our potatoes. Baked potatoes, however, experience enough heat to minimize these toxins.
Microwaved potatoes, however, may not! Then again, they may... Just how hot does the surface of a nuked potato get during those 4 minutes on high?