Owning a microwave oven

Good on you for never getting one. We had one in the past before we "became enlightened" and used to like it as many who are blindly caught up in mainstream society do. That slow combustion stove sounds great. I would love something like that here to warm our place, but most of the year, it would not be used. Well done on the whole 100% raw thing. How are you feeling? Any different? You know I agree about the milk thing. What is wrong with water?

Yeah, don't drink out of the Murray! No spring water suppliers down there? Surely there must be some fresh springs somewhere in amongst all those caves? Really? You are collecting microwaves and building torches?? Do you have a link for instructions for that? All the steel in the microwaves would collect a bit at the scrap metal yards too I imagine if you took in a trailer load of them!

Bugger the water! Down here, water's full of animal & agricultural waste, fluoridation & chlorination, etc - worst in the nation! Go the mighty GD Coconuts!!! I was about 98% raw before that anyway, but I'm feeling great now! I thought I would feel faint or light-headed, but there hasn't been any of that. It's saving me more money too. Microwaves are being thrown out onto the streets everywhere down here in kerbside collections, etc. The coil under the turntable is great for making those battery-less hand-powered LED torches. I've just finished the CBD, now I'm about to start "collecting" near work!

I reheated some rice while the stew was getting properly heated on the range and the salad was being getting dressed..But as my eyes grow worse, I can assure you that I love that clock more every day that goes by

I can imagine that those big numbers would help in that regard!

Yeah, they are good for a kitchen clock I guess, but they take up a lot of bench space just to be used for that! When we go on trips and stay in hotels or cabins that have them, we use them to store things in. One tiny cabin we had little bench space, so our books went in there. Another time, we stored our fruit in one! Yes, you do need to be giving diabetics nutritious foods, but microwaving food might kill the nutrition in it! I have seen people reverse diabetes with raw foods, so no need for cooking anything then!

That is the way that society is going, but these electrical devices, particularly mobile devices such as microwaves, phones and laptops emit harmful electronic frequencies. These are known to cause damage, but just how much damage over time is unknown as we have not lived generations with them like we have fixed line phones and conventional stoves and ovens. Too much of the unknown for my liking.

I do have a microwave at my home. This microwave is hardly used because we normally like to use the stove to boil, to steam and to cook foods. About this microwave, I have a very negative impression. This microwave oven is just good for me to heat up my cold foods. Other than this, the microwave has no other usage. First of all, the microwave oven can not be used to cook raw foods and to boil water. The generated heat by this microwave oven is insufficient to kill the bacterias. We shall be careful of using this microwave oven while the generation of radiation during our cooking.

Yes they do. lol They put a tea spoon of coffee in a cold cup of water, and warm it up in the microwave. lol

I was probably about ten years behind the rest, but then got rid of mine around the same time that you got yours. We do not miss it at all and have no need for it. Do people really make coffee in microwaves these days? As I am not a microwave user or a coffee drinker, I am totally out of the loop on that one!

Good morning. You are another early riser like me are you? Someone further up the discussion mentioned the same thing with coffee in a microwave. I used to be a coffee drinker but I never did that!

Yes 163Mandolingirl, those prepackaged microwave meals are probably the worst meal that one could cook for themselves at home. Not really what I would call food!

I am sure that you are not alone in feeling dependant on an appliance. I am like that with my blender. If I cannot make myself a smoothie during the day, I feel a little stressed. (but only a little) We can survive without these things and will eat better without them too in my opinion. The microwave revolution created all sorts of nasty quick poisonous meals that people rely on these days and it is very sad I think.

What worries me about those meals is the fact they come in plastic containers, which when heated can give off dioxines. Well, bad chemiclas, anyway. I only use my microwave to heat up food I have cooked myself from scratch and frozen, and then put in a glass container for cooking. I don't buy any processed food for the microwave any more.

No microwaves! Wow, you must have grown up in the dark ages like me with no internet, no mobile phones or Ipods either! How on earth did we survive? My kids have grown up without a microwave, so they might not even know how to use one! They do know how to use a blender and a juicer though!

Not only that, we didn't have game consoles. We had to play in the streets to amuse ourselves. We we're such cavemen!

'Ah, I remember it well!'

I am glad to hear that you do not use one very often, but they do take up a lot of valuable space in the kitchen only to be used every now and then.

It almost sounds like you are a collector of the things! It is quite easy to live without them. Things only take slightly longer to reheat or cook the traditional way and you don't have to worry about whether or not you are doing harm to your body from the micro waves.

Hi Jo. This sort of goes along with your discussion about cooking for one. I can see the attraction of having one to reheat meals and we used to do the same, but when we gave our microwave away and went back to the stove, it really did not make a big difference. And at least we know that the stove will not emit any dangerous electrical waves.

Sun tea is awesome. I should do more of that myself, but I must admit to using the kettle to make my herbal teas. That is great that you do not use your stove anymore. Must mean you are on the right track at home. Eating out with friends can be challenging in regards to staying high raw. We are lucky here in our city that there is a strong vegan community and there are now a few raw places to eat out. How is it in Florida? I thought that the USA was filled with raw vegan eateries, but I guess most of them might be on the West Coast and in New York?

You are on the right path there. I completely agree with you that having a microwave will not improve my life one bit. In fact, it may hinder me, so I choose not to go there.

That is a good choice. Stir frying vegetables is much better than microwaving them! I do not know if I would call what the microwave does talent though!

Stir frying vegetable can prevent some vitamins from being destroyed due to overheat.

This is true. I eat my vegetables mostly raw or lightly steamed. This minimises enzyme loss. Stir frying would be similar to lightly steaming maybe.

I thought the self cleaning spiel might have been a little too good to be true! Energy bills have gone crazy here in Australia too. In fact, it is probably a worldwide issue. Everything seems to have radically jumped up in price over the last decade or so.

Well, I wouldn't say it does that entirely without human help! You fill it to the mark, put in some washing-up liquid and then turn it on to 'Wash'. Then it usually needs scrubbing out, tipping out in the sink and then drying! If it is only a little grubby, it can be wiped inside with a hot damp cloth. Having said all that, you just get used to what you need to do. It is still worth having, as it saves wasting energy heating up a large oven all the time. The energy bills in the UK have just gone up, again!

The bowl of water is a much better option, but even better in my opinion is to not give the child milk in the first place....but that is for another discussion! If you rarely use your microwave, then maybe you should get rid of it and free up some space for a healthier appliance maybe?

No it's usually when the pot is shut off and coffee is left over. I usually have only two cups in the AM and maybe once in a while in the evening

That was about all I ever drank at the most as a coffee drinker. I can tell you though that I feel better without it now!

You are another one who heats their coffee in a microwave! I never did this when I was a coffee drinker and a microwave owner! Perhaps it is a new habit? Do you only use it to reheat a coffee that you have accidentally let go cold, or do you heat it initially too?

Mostly I drink mine cold as well but there are times when I really want a hot one. Yep, I remember doing that particular "herb" too. It didn't work terribly well in the microwave. It works better just to spread the stuff to dry in a sun-shiny room...so I've been told.

I just add more hot water to my tea if it gets cold or I drink it cold. I use a dehydrator for drying herbs, but I do remember people drying some of that illegal herb in a microwave many moons ago in my previous life and it worked well!

So you've been told! I can imagine that that method would be better than the microwave!

I can totally understand that! To tell you the honest truth, I hardly use my microwave these days.

I am coming up for the Caloundra music Festival again this year. Can you please organise some better weather this year for me? Thanks!

It is funny! But also worrying when we think about how society depends on certain things these days. I initially wondered about going back to stove top reheating and how we were going to handle it, but it was not hard and now I would not even think of using a microwave even if I had access to one. It just would not occur to me as it is not habit.

You are right there, heating milk for babies in a microwave is not good. I am thinking that it would heat unevenly causing lots of hot spots in the milk and causing any nutrition that might exist in the milk to be destroyed. I do not even agree with feeding babies cows milk in the first place. We are not cows, so why should we give our youth the milk of another mammal?

It is actually not that difficult at all! Quite easy really!

Thanks for the links. The first one was in German though and I could not understand anything! I found it interesting that microwaves are only 64% efficient as mentioned in the Wiki article. "A microwave oven converts only part of its electrical input into microwave energy. A typical consumer microwave oven consumes 1100 W of electricity in producing 700 W of microwave power, an efficiency of 64%. The other 400 W are dissipated as heat, mostly in the magnetron tube. Additional power is used to operate the lamps, AC power transformer, magnetron cooling fan, food turntable motor and the control circuits. Such wasted heat, along with heat from the product being microwaved, is exhausted as warm air through cooling vents." The Acrylamide article was interesting. I had never heard of that before but it does not surprise me mostly. What does surprise me in that was that raw black olives contain Acrylamide in a small amount. Interesting! I am concerned with any type of mobile device and the radiation that it exposes us to. This is why I do not use a microwave and do not use laptops unless they have external mouse and keyboard. I do have wireless internet which I am not terribly happy about, but it is the only choice I have for a reasonable internet connection. I also have a mobile phone, but I have a radiation reducing headset for that the same as this one. http://raw-pleasure.com.au/Lifestyle/ENVi-Radiation-Reducing-Mobile-Phone-Headset-Mono-Earhook Wherever there is conflicting reports on anything, these days I prefer to err on the side of caution instead of being carefree about it.

That is alright about the German link. I forgive you. You are right. There is energy loss in all types of heating as well as electricity and any other type of mainstream energy. Veganbliss is a god one to talk to on this matter! That is an interesting article on the effects microwaving had on the levels in potato chips. Still better to boil the potatoes and eat them that way though I feel rather than frying them. But if people want to eat potato chips badly enough then that might be a good option for them. I do hope that you will not have any issues in the future too. Myself, I think that they are not worth the risk. I can prepare meals just as well for myself alone without one, but I do understand the convenience of having one as I used to use one. When we first had the idea to get rid of ours, I wondered how I would get on without it, but it was really quit easy. You should have seen the look on our neighbours face when I knocked on his door with a microwave and said here you go, it is yours! He could not understand why we wanted to live without one!