Week 5: Microwave 101

The microwave is a symbol for American culture. Microwaves scream, "We want it now!" and if you're living and breathing in the United States, it's hard to not see that our culture often screams the same thing. Whether we're talking about food, high-paying jobs, sex, or fame - we want it now. Ask someone to get rid of their microwave, and they'll look at you like you asked them for a kidney. Tell someone you haven't actually used a microwave in two years, and well, it's worse than admitting you voted for George Bush in a Blue State. So I understand that this week may be a tough pill to swallow. Add that to the fact that there really isn't a slew of conclusive scientific evidence (due to government censorship, in my opinion) to support the convictions of the anti-microwave party, and I feel the pain of an uphill battle. But I march on...

What IS a Microwave, Exactly?
Let me bring you back to eighth grade science class. Microwaves have magnetrons, which are tubes that send out radiation waves. The waves have energy. Foods have positive and negative polarity. The energy in the waves works to change the polarity in the food each time the wave goes through a cycle, which ends up being millions of times every second. These changes create friction, which heats up the food. Sounds good, right? Well, the friction can also create damage to its neighboring molecules, sometimes forcefully denaturing them. The scientific name for this deformation is "structural isomerism". Minerals remain unaffected, but because the structures of the molecules are so compromised, the cells, precious store houses of vitamins, are at serious risk. One study shows that 97% of the nutrients in vegetables are lost in this process!!

Where Did Microwaves Come From?
Oh, I'm so glad you asked! Those do-gooders, the Nazis, invented the first microwaves to assist them in food preparation as they moved towards invading Russia. The Russians ended up doing research on microwaves after the German occupation ended, and in 1976, they banned microwaves for a time, due to their findings that microwaves denatured nutrients and transformed them into carcinogens (read: cancer-causing!). The free radicals that were found to result from microwaving your food can lead to a host of issues - including arthritis, cancer, asthma, multiple sclerosis, and on and on.

Why Isn't This Public Knowledge?
Well, a food scientist by the name of Dr. Hans Ulrich Hertel conducted research on the effects of microwaves on food and the blood of those who consumed the food. His research concluded that the nutrients in the food were changed, resulting in degenerative changes in the subjects' blood, as well as poor immune function, and the morphing of normally healthy cells into cancerous cells. However, in 1992, the Swiss Association of Dealers for Electro-apparatuses for Households and Industry charged Hertel with "interfering with commerce" and his research was banned from publication. The FDA insists that microwaves are safe, but they seem to dismiss the warning from Young Families, the Minnesota Extension Service of the University of Minnesota, who declared that babies' bottles should not be microwaved because the protective properties of the milk may be destroyed. Nor are they commenting on the patient receiving a blood transfusion who died because the blood was microwaved!

In Conclusion...
**This information is taken from The Global Healing Center's website

Ten Reasons to Throw out your Microwave Oven

From the conclusions of the Swiss, Russian and German scientific clinical studies, the following main points have emerged:

1. Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term - permanent - brain damage by "shorting out" electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue].

2. The human body cannot metabolize [break down] the unknown by-products created in microwaved food.

3. Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.

4. The effects of microwaved food by-products are residual [long term, permanent] within the human body.

5. Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food is reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the human body absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down.

6. The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens.

7. Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths [tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increased rate of colon cancer in America.

8. The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cancerous cells to increase in human blood.

9. Continual ingestion of microwaved food causes immune system deficiencies through lymph gland and blood serum alterations.

10. Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability, and a decrease of intelligence.

Week 5 Shopping List

Meat
1lb chicken breasts or thighs
2lb stew beef
white fish
1 lb turkey bacon or organic pork bacon
1 lb turkey breast (Applegate Farms is a great brand - but anything that is nitrate, nitrite free is good!)


Produce
1 butternut squash
1 apple
1 bag small onions (about 6)
1lb bag carrots
4-5 potatoes
greens (chard, kale, spinach)
garlic
bananas
frozen berries
2 red peppers
lemon

Canned or Dried Items
white wine
red wine
2-3 c red quinoa
1.5 c wheat berries
sun dried tomatoes
Oatmeal (try steel cut!)
whole wheat flour


Dairy
cage free eggs
naturally sweetened or plain yogurt (Seven Stars Farm, Hawthorne Family Farm)
1/2 c creme fraiche
1/2 - 1 c Parmesan cheese

...and does anyone want some raw milk?? Post a comment and let me know.

Other staples
coconut oil (favorite source - Mountain Rose Herbs: $41 for 1 gallon of unrefined or $22 for refined, which will last forever!)
Real Maple syrup
spices: bay leaves, dill, oregano, thyme, basil

Week 5 Menu

This week's challenge is to go without microwaving any of your food. Can you do it?! It may require some advanced planning, but I think it's well worth it. (Did you know the Nazis invented the microwave?) The kitchen's desperate for a cleaning before yoga tonight, but all recipes will have active links soon - check back again!

On the menu this week are some more quick, easy meals. I've been getting positive feedback on the crockpot meals, so enjoy! Hopefully you were able to make stock during week 4, so you'll have a rich base for the soups.

All of the meals will include enough for two nights' dinners, for two people, so you'll be preparing dinner just three evenings (or if you're like me, all in one day to minimize cooking!). Adjust recipes accordingly if you are cooking for more than two.


Features
When necessary, prepare these early in the week so you have them on hand for recipes and munching!

Grain - Quinoa (keen-WA)
Bread - Yogurt Herb Bread
Soup - Butternut Squash Soup
Snack - Popcorn (Pop a huge pot so you have some to munch on all week!)

Must-Make Recipe of the Week: Gingerbread Pancakes

MENU
Prep: Soak flour in yogurt for yogurt dough

Day 1
Breakfast - Smoothies
Lunch - Red Pepper Quiche
Dinner - Beef Stew

Day 2
Breakfast - Dirty Scrambled Eggs (scrambled eggs with bits of veggies mixed in)
Lunch - Crockpot Chicken and Red Quinoa (keen-WA)
Dinner - Beef Stew

Day 3
Breakfast - Oatmeal
Lunch - Red Pepper Quiche
Dinner - Crockpot Chicken and Red Quinoa (keen-WA)


Day 4
Breakfast - Kiku
Lunch - Yogurt Parfait
Dinner - Butternut Squash Soup

Day 5
Breakfast - Kiku
Lunch - Turkey bacon sandwich on sourdough or homemade bread
Dinner - White fish, steamed greens with lemon and garlic, and quinoa

Day 6
Breakfast - Gingerbread Pancakes
Lunch - Butternut Squash Soup
Dinner - Leftover White fish, steamed broccoli with lemon and garlic, and quinoa


Day 7
You'll probably have enough leftovers to take you through the day! Most people enjoy a meal or two out once a week as well, so these recipes should take you through.


Snacks
Power Bars

Crispy or sprouted nuts


Natural yogurt (no added sugars or "vitamins") with unsweetened coconut, soaked nuts, and cocoa powder

Hummus with veggies or crackers

Homemade popcorn, popped on stove in coconut oil

celery with all natural peanut butter and raisins

potato skins or sweet potato fries