Are microwavable meals bad for you?

Microwavable meals are an excellent option for a sudden lunch/breakfast on days when you don't feel like cooking or if you do not have the time. However, daily, you need to ensure that you pick the right meals that contain the right level of nutrients and not overly high levels of sodium, for instance.

Here's what you need to know about pre-made microwavable meals, how they affect your health, and what to look out for.

Is Microwave Cooking Safe?

In terms of concern on the radiation from microwaves, since 1971, microwaves have been considered safe to use by The Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In terms of whether microwave cooking reduces nutrients, there has been slightly more contrasting research. In a 2003 research, broccoli was cooked in 4 ways - high boiling, low boiling, steamed and microwaved. It was found that the broccoli lost 97% of the flavonoids after cooking in a microwave.[i]

However, another study in 2019 on the same topic research revealed that microwave preserving and cooking doesn't decrease any flavonoids; in fact, it increases them.[i]

In all these conversational studies, we're still confused as to whether microwave foods are good for you or not? Another research from 2005 focused on the total phenolics of foods after cooking them in the microwave.[iii] Conclusively, some veggies such as squash, peas, and leeks lost total phenolic content. However, the quantity increased in spinach, peppers, broccoli, and green beans.

One thing to make sure, microwave meals and microwave cooking are two different things. We can say that the safety of microwave cooking depends on the type and the situation of the food. Some healthy foods can be prepared in a microwave, but not all prepackaged microwave meals are healthy. In the next section, we tackle the potential health concerns of cheap, low-quality store-bought pre-made meals.

What Are the Potential Health Concerns Associated With Microwavable Meals?

The store-bought microwave meals you grab in bulk during groceries are typically not healthy - at all. They are loaded with added sugars, sodium, and plenty of preservatives and unhealthy fats, which can cause serious health concerns if consumed regularly. The following are some of the most associated potential health concerns:

1. High Blood Pressure

As highlighted above, frozen foods, canned foods, or other microwave meals have lots of sodium content, which is dangerous for blood pressure health. Such an amount of sodium added to your bloodstream can alter how your blood pressure regulates in your body and disturb your cardiovascular system.

According to CDC, we need to consume less than 2,300 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day to stay in optimal health. If exceeded, it can cause hypertension, chronic heart disease, and stroke.

2. Water Retention

Having too much sodium in your body can increase the amount of fluid outside your cells. As a result, your body may retain water and trick your brain into thinking it has lots of fluids (making you less thirsty), while in reality, your body is retaining excess water.

Water retention can lead to serious health concerns such as kidney failure, heart failure, kidney damage, kidney stones, and liver cirrhosis.

3. Increased Weight

Some companies may advertise microwavable meals as low caloric and optimal for losing weight. However, most of them are nothing more than an advertising trap. Microwave meals can be loaded with excess sugars, salt, artificial flavours, and high-calorie ingredients that can raise your weight in just days.

If buying microwave meals, be sure to check the total calories, sodium, and sugar on the back of the pack before buying.

4. Chemical Ingestion

Cheap microwavable meals are unhealthy because of the chemicals and preservatives added to them. To keep the food safe cheaply, companies tend to use many preservatives and chemicals in manufacturing microwavable meals. All of those can directly harm your health when consumed in high amounts.

Pre-made meals companies which avoid unhealthy preservatives do that by blast chilling the meals and by accepting a shorter use-by date. New packaging technologies and innovations have also resulted in more companies being able to avoid adding harmful preservatives.

One last thing to look out for regarding chemicals, when microwaving foods make sure to use the correct microwave-safe plastic containers to avoid ingesting phthalates (plastic additives), or simply use other container materials such as ceramic and glass.

What Can You Do Instead?

Now you know why microwave meals can be unhealthy and in what ways, look out for nutritional information before purchasing pre-made meals. As a rule of thumb, try to avoid buying cheap store-bought microwave meals. Instead, we would recommend you order meals from specialised, independent and high-quality pre-made meal companies, or even meal prep companies if you are into fitness or have a fitness goal such as losing weight.

In the last few years, many new companies have launched as a result of the COVID pandemic so now in the UK, there is a lot of variety and choice in terms of healthy pre-made meals.

The ideal option, if you have the time and the skills to prepare healthy meals, it is to prep your own meals. You can prep your meals at weekends when you're free from work. Meal prepping can benefit you by choosing the ingredients you like and are the most nutritional for you.Such meals can be reheated in the microwave when needed. This way, you can efficiently manage time as well as keep your health in check.

Conclusion

Microwaves are safe for reheating meals, but the case is not the same for microwave meals. Added sodium, preservatives, packaging, extra calories, excess sugars, and chemicals are the primary reasons why microwave meals are bad for you?

If you are interested in ordering from high-quality meal prep delivery and pre-made meal companies, then look no further than themealprepmarket.co.uk™. You can order from a selection of the best meal prep and pre-made meal companies as often as you want.

References:

[i] Vallejo, F., Tomás‐Barberán, F. A., & García‐Viguera, C. (2003). Phenolic compound contents in edible parts of broccoli inflorescences after domestic cooking. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 83(14),1511-1516.

[ii] Wu X., Zhao, Y., Haytowitz, D. B., Chen, P., & Pehrsson, P. R. (2019). Effects of domestic cooking on flavonoids in broccoli and calculation of retention factors. Heliyon, 5(3), e01310.

[iii] Turkmen, N., Sari, F., & Velioglu, Y. S. (2005). The effect of cooking methods on total phenolics and antioxidant activity of selected green vegetables. Food Chemistry, 93(4), 713-718.