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Do not put plastic in the microwave
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- 54r4rf 3y agoglad I never trusted the microwave for food. Something iffy with that cooking method
- BadBadJellyBean 3y agoIs it? The problem is not the microwaves but the container you cook in. Put it on a plate and you are fine.
- alvperez82 3y agoor in a cristal tupperware, isn't it?
- shortcake27 3y ago> Something iffy with that cooking method It’s anything but iffy; the science behind microwaves is well understood. What part exactly don’t you trust? The laws of physics that govern this particular universe we happen to exist in?
- Our_Benefactors 3y ago> The health impacts of eating plastic is still unclear Wake me up when there’s a reason to care. Why should society be restructured on a hunch?
- granshaw 3y agoMight be impossible to wake you up at that point
- pixl97 3y ago"Unfortunately we cannot do anything, maybe we could have if we caught it before stage 4"
- Our_Benefactors 3y agofear monger
- permo-w 3y agoreactive chemicals not normally found in nature probably aren't a good thing to introduce to your body
- pixl97 3y ago>Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are the fastest-rising early-onset cancers, increasing by almost 15% from 2010 to 2019. This increase is a global phenomenon. Or, maybe, there's something to this.
- tdehnel 3y agoUtterly terrible argument. You could just as easily claim social media or touchscreens or episodes of Modern Family or literally anything else has lead to this increase.
- mometsi 3y ago"Wake me up when it's stage 5."
- splatcollision 3y agoHave not had a microwave in our home for at least 16 years, and don’t ever feel like we are missing anything. There’s literally never any ordinary household situation that requires that fast heating. Just put your leftovers in a pan and stir them occasionally!
- ufo 3y agoI also use my microwave to steam vegetables. It's more energy efficient than in the stove.
- tzs 3y agoIt's also great for reheating frozen rice. I make 14 servings in my rice cooker (I'm using a serving size where 1 serving is about 200 calories) and then freeze them in individual freezer bags. They will keep fine that way for months. Food Network says 6 months but I've never taken more than 2 months to use 14 bags so don't know how accurate that is. To use I take one or two of the frozen bags, empty them into a large microwave-safe bowl, add a little bit of water, and cover. Microwave for 3 minutes on high in my 1200 watt microwave, or 4 minutes if I used two bags.
- polishdude20 3y agoWhy don't you have a microwave?
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoMaybe "I don't use a microwave" is becoming the new "I don't watch TV."
- jpgvm 3y agoI don't really do either on a regular basis... I never watched TV growing up and by the time I got money to buy my own already developed habits that didn't include TV. I have a big TV for watching films and some occasional YouTube however. I really enjoy films. I own a microwave but I rarely use it. I cook most of my meals fresh. I might use it for reheating something or melting some butter maybe once a month. Most of my meals are cooked in the oven or pan. I love to cook though so batching cooking up just so you can zap things throughout the week isn't something that appeals to me, etc. So not really conscious decisions, just two things I don't really do. Am I really that weird?
- MSFT_Edging 3y agoOne main reason I started eating mostly vegetarian at home is the preparation stage. With all vegetables, wood cutting boards are simple and easy. But they're porous and I don't want meat bacteria getting absorbed in the wood. The typical response is "use a plastic cutting board", but have you ever looked at a plastic cutting board after a few uses? 1000s of nice crevices for bacteria and loose plastic. Nah I'm good, I'll just cook vegetables and have meat as a special treat. The only plastic in my kitchen is some measuring cups, and soft ended spatulas/ladles and even those should be replaced. Sure I don't know what exactly plastic does to my system, but should that be a reason to not avoid putting plastic in my system? I'm sure I'm already accumulating a ton but I can at least reduce it in areas that I control.
- floren 3y agoI've cut an awful lot of meat on wood cutting boards. It's fine. I always cut the meat last, then wash it soon. If it's chicken, I wash immediately after cutting, but that's kind of my practice regardless of cutting board material because I don't want chicken juice sitting around.
- fluidcruft 3y agoYou can put plastic cutting boards in the dishwasher, though, and get them quite hot to sanitize. Generally, that will destroy a wood cutting board. I suppose you could maybe use UV light to sanitize a wood cutting board.
- dundarious 3y agoAs discussed in the article, heating can increase shedding, creating a porous surface. It's OK that it's porous if it's cleaned in the dishwasher after every use, but, and I may be wrong, I wouldn't be confident all the shedding is washed away in the dishwasher.
- geoduck14 3y ago>I suppose you could maybe use UV light to sanitize a wood cutting board If your wood cutting board is made right, it helps with sanitization. The grain is supposed to be "up and down", so you cut "into" the grain. This pushes the microbes "into" the cutting board, where they are starved over oxygen and die - or the wood pushes the microbes back "out", where you can clean them off the surface. By the way, many wood "cutting boards" are actually "charcuterie" boards - they are thin, and the grain doesn't run "up and down". The wood cutting boards I'm describing are thick, like 1 inch thick.
- SubiculumCode 3y agoWhat I am surprised about is that (please confirm if you know otherwise) microplastic contamination from microwaving plastics wasn't investigated decades ago. In the 80's we all knew that some plastics get soft in the microwave, it seemed exceedingly likely to the layman that it would leach out. Microplastics, were they unobservable in the 80's? Were there no scientists interested in this? I am decidedly anti-conspiracy when I look for explanations on phenomenon, but I am having a bit more trouble avoiding it on this one. Or is this the case that the research existed, but the media finally cared?
- texuf 3y agoDon’t put plastic in the microwave,” has been common advice in my circle for over a decade, maybe three or more? I feel like it either finally stopped getting suppressed, or it finally hit an emergent “critical mass” and broke through (probably the second one).
- permo-w 3y agoI mean we're talking about it here, and health hipsters have been talking about it for a long time, but are we actually at the point where enough people know/care that concerted society-wide effort is being made to fix it? besides companies selling water bottles as "BPA-free", not as far as I can see
- SubiculumCode 3y agoyeah, in terms of public opinion, but I am specifically curious about what research was conducted in the 80's or 90's. I tried a few searches on Google Scholar this morning but their UI controls are heavily skewed toward finding new research, not old..plus the long issue of pre electronic publications. I bet there are publications, but probably skewed to particular contexts. e.g. I found a study examining leaching of plastic chemicals into blood plastic pouches used in hospitals. Medical device research probably doesn't tend to "leach" into other research fields
- notacoward 3y ago> it seemed exceedingly likely to the layman that it would leach out It seemed exceedingly likely to scientists too. I've been reading about the dangers of microwaving stuff in plastic containers, or using plastic wrap in the microwave, as long as I can remember. Here's a study from 1990, citing several others that go back to 1988. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Migration-testing-of-plastics-and-microwave-active-Castle-Jickells/d74897403d3129107a7c942108e7156a52daec7b https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Migration-testing-of-p... I'm pretty sure there were earlier ones as well. What's important here is not to conflate leached chemicals with micro- or nano-particles. Scientists and consumer advocates (and many consumers) have been well aware of the former for a long time, while awareness of the latter is relatively new. > Microplastics, were they unobservable in the 80's? Sort of. The term is sometimes attributed to Richard Thompson in 2004. https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/discover/are-microplastics-a-big-problem https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/discover/are-microplastics-a-big-... Prior to that (or thereabouts) nobody knew to look for whole plastic particles as opposed to individual chemical components. Therefore tools to quantify or analyze them were not well refined, and likewise for methodologies. The specific issue of microplastics in microwaves is even newer than that. It's evolving science, which is practically redundant because that's what science always does. Cases of zero awareness to high awareness overnight are rare. More often it's increasing awareness, and correspondingly increasing sophistication in measurement or analysis, as each study takes years and someone to fund it.
- 0xcde4c3db 3y agoI have my doubts that microplastic/nanoplastic exposure is something that the average person in industrialized countries can individually lifestyle-choice their way out of. This is just one vector out of dozens (if not hundreds), most of which haven't been studied so closely. Plastic pollution is a systemic problem, and has been for decades.
- kristopolous 3y agoYou can reduce (or increase!) your exposure to it through individual action though.
- 0xcde4c3db 3y agoI'm sure there's some set of lifestyle choices that would lead to a measurable reduction, but whether that reduction matters practically is a different question.
- kristopolous 3y agook, but have people's individual habits on tobacco consumption reduced the non-smokers exposure to it? These things can make a difference in large enough numbers. It's not irrelevant at scale.
- dwaite 3y agoIf the scale winds up being that eliminating my microwave usage and throwing out plastic containers from my house entirely reduces my plastic consumption 1 %, then I wasted a whole bunch of time and money, and distracted myself from trying to find ways that _would_ reduce plastic consumption (say, filtration on municipal water - but who knows). Single source municipal recycling is typically a process of sorting and selling certain kinds of waste to other people, with little processing happening locally. This process is way more wasteful than people would like to think, with changing and opaque rules about what is acceptable and what will wind up just being thrown away. I'd give that as an example of a policy that promotes a certain amount of effort to make people FEEL like they are making a difference, vs actually making a significant difference.
- lucgagan 3y agoThis may sound dumb, but I never trusted microwaves. It just feels so unnatural. I even have basic understanding on how they work (water molecules in food start to vibrate producing heat), but it just doesn't taste good and feels off. No way it is healthy.
- noSyncCloud 3y agoCan you give us a quick rundown of what heat is, in your understanding?
- adderthorn 3y agoI think the takeaway here is cooking in plastic in the microwave, not the microwave technology itself.
- shortcake27 3y ago> No way it is healthy. That’s a bold claim. How did you come to this conclusion? Do you have any scientific literature you can point us to that proves microwaved food is unhealthy?
- permo-w 3y agoit's not healthy, but only in the sense that it lowers the barrier to eating more food. other than that, heat is heat
- nayuki 3y agoIf you go by that standard, barbecuing over a fire is pretty unnatural too. Burning chemicals, depositing random hydrocarbon soot onto your food, having poor control over the cooking temperature... And we know it's unhealthy.
- stouset 3y agoThe culprit here is plastic. There has never been a reasonable suspicion that microwaves themselves are in any way detrimental.
- revertmean 3y ago> water molecules in food start to vibrate producing heat That isn't really how microwaves work. Or, perhaps, that's how all radiation heat things work. It's any molecule that will absorb radiation of that frequency. So your grill works the same way, just at a different frequency. At microwave level, it's water, fats, all sorts of things. The difference is really the stuff that doesn't absorb at those frequencies.
- shadowofneptune 3y ago> If he “was on a deserted island and [plastic] was all that was available,” Rogers says he’d opt for types two [High-Density Polyethylene] and five [Polypropylene]. These are both higher density formulas, used to contain liquids and manufacture items like the rigid plastic forks dispensed at your local takeout restaurant. They have a higher melting point, “and they also don’t tend to chip or shatter as much,” says Rogers. (Still, Hussain’s team found these types of containers shed plenty of microplastics when heated.) This the part I feel should be focused on. HDPE is notable for being safe to handle during its entire lifecycle, from production to use to recycling. Even when pushed well past its softening point, it does not create any hazardous fumes. A sustainable future does not mean avoiding the use of plastics entirely, it means identifying which are the most useful in the long-term.
- Robotbeat 3y agoPE and PP are also the cheapest and most common plastics. They are NOT very stiff, tho.
- Hextinium 3y agoHDPE is very stiff, MDPE is kinda stiff and LDPE is flimsy. Same monomer just cross linked differently with a different production process. Plastic is chemistry magic.
- dragontamer 3y agoIt's just carbon and hydrogen chains. How complex can it be? Surely not so complex to require its own field. /s For those unaware of the joke, Organic Chemistry is quite complex. Hydrogen+Carbon can make plastic or Gasoline depending on the details of how it chains.
- Robotbeat 3y agoI’m aware, but HDPE is less stiff than other commodity plastics like ABS or PLA.
- bradfa 3y ago
- kvetching 3y agoWhat about all those foods that come wrapped in plastic that you put directly into the microwave. For example, you can buy countless vegetables that you are supposed to cook / steam in the package.
- prh8 3y agoThose are just as bad, and often times have an internal package coating that also deteriorates
- sunnybeetroot 3y agoMicrowave popcorn has been confirmed to have high levels of forever plastics.
- derefr 3y agoA bit of solutionist brain-storming here: It seems to me that the main advantage of plastic food storage containers over glass ones — other than price — comes mostly from weight. You don't want to carry your leftovers to work in glass containers; they're heavy! (And AFAIK no other container material besides plastic is a good substitute for glass in food storage, because 1. they're not washable / interact chemically too much with the food, or 2. they're not visually transparent enough to tell what's in the container. So let's ignore other materials as possible solutions for now.) I presume that the problem here isn't that microwaves are causing vaporization or spalling of the container material in such a way that microplastic particles coming from the outside of the container can end up in your food. (If that's the case, then plastics are basically entirely screwed for this use-case, and we may as well give up on them entirely.) But presuming instead that the problem is only with your food interacting with the inner surface of the container, under heat/acid/etc — i.e. some kind of leeching or osmosis of the food against the container surface, causing the plasticizers in the container to "exchange" out... Then, if that's the case, would it be possible to make a food storage container that's mostly plastic, but then has "just a little bit" of glass, lining the inner surface? A glass barrier-layer, sort of like how plastics themselves are used as a barrier layer on the inside of aluminum cans? Resulting in something that's a lot lighter-weight than a thick glass container, but a lot more "inert" than a plastic container? Glass is usually brittle, I know; and unlike a glass food-storage container, which is usually thick, plastic food-storage containers are usually more thin and flexible. A plastic substrate would want to bend, and that would, naively, shatter a glass "film" on its surface. But! We've recently invented bendable ("foldable") glass, haven't we? And in fact we're laminating this "foldable" glass to plastic substrates all the time. It's even transparent! I think it's workable as a process. You could, in theory, produce glass-lined plastic food storage containers. I only wonder if it could be made cheap enough that, even at massive scale, these containers would come out at a price-point that anyone would pay.
- bell-cot 3y agoHow about using cheap, old-fashioned food-grade silicone, instead of bendable glass?
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- fizzynut 3y agoIt is strange to see people with such mistrust of a microwave because it is "unnatural" and therefore unhealthy. The process of cooking anything using something "natural" like a fire creates a lot more carcinogens than a microwave. You wouldn't put plastic in a pan or oven to cook your food in, so if you want to reduce your exposure to plastic just use another container, it would be useful to know what the objective harm of this practice is compared to say using gas stove.
- Ancapistani 3y ago> You wouldn't put plastic in a pan or oven to cook your food in Someone should probably tell Costco. They offer a variety of ready-made frozen dinners that instruct you specifically to place the plastic container into the oven at 300ºF.
- reducesuffering 3y agoYa frozen tv dinners are a big culprit here. Fortunately, atleast Trader Joe’s in my area has just switched to paper containers. Who’s got the over/under whether that paper is lined with plastic…
- coffeebeqn 3y agoIt is. Unless the liquid has seeped through it or something
- danjc 3y agoI wonder about glue present in the paper/cardboard.
- FooBarBizBazz 3y agoGenerally paper containers are covered in PFAS.
- NelsonMinar 3y agoThe article has a whole section on why microwaving plastic creates a specific risk.
- nerdjon 3y agoThe anti microwave comments in this thread are kinda wild considering if you put plastic in other cooking methods it's even worse. Microwave is just the less obvious one. Especially considering the studies that show how microwave keeps more nutrients in your food (I think the studies I have seen have been particularly for vegetables but I would imagine that is true for others but I don't know). Would be great if we could find an alternative to plastic covers you have to piece for frozen meals (or plastic steam bags) but I have yet to see an alternative. But this is a good reason to at least when storing leftovers or sauces to put them in a glass container instead to minimize exposure.
- thatwasunusual 3y ago> The anti microwave comments in this thread are kinda wild considering if you put plastic in other cooking methods it's even worse. What other cooking methods involves using plastic? I use glass for everything microwave, not because I'm worried about plastic, but mostly because a) I have mostly glass storage containers, b) I feel that it contain the heat better, and c) they keep heat _out_ better. The latter is probably the most important thing. Easier to handle, and have a shorter cool-down time before putting it into the fridge.
- j7ake 3y agoIn some Asian countries, microwaves are not common. They use a steamer with either metal or porcelain bowls inside. Maybe the data can be used to compare between microwave SV non microwave life.
- underseacables 3y agoPlastics in cooking has probably caused an ecological and human disaster. The teflon and other plastic coatings scrape off into food, release chemicals when heated, and break down when holding acidic foods.
- 123pie123 3y agowhilst I have no proof of what you have said, I've not taken any chances either all our food prep is done with glass or stainless steel
- jrmg 3y agoIt’s important to keep health articles like this in context. Sure, try to mimimize risk, but if you’re feeling too anxious remember that human beings are, currently, living longer, healthier lives than they ever have.
- sneak 3y agoAlso, given what we know about human physiology, if you want to live longer and healthier, the biggest ROI is not on changing your cookware, but on eating healthy foods and getting regular cardiovascular exercise. Eat some vegetables and go for a run or a bike ride. We know what works for improving health.
- albert_e 3y agoAnd I am sure a future study might also say : one risk factor for healthy and long life is reading about various health risks and worrying about them all the time :)
- saltcured 3y agoWarning: Reading comprehension is known to the State of California to increase the risk of cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm?
- Shaanie 3y agoNot microwaving plastic is an insanely easy lifestyle adjustment that virtually anyone can do starting immediately without effort. Changing diet or exercising may be much more impactful, but they require significant time and effort - gargantuan amounts compared to just changing from plastic to glass lunch boxes.
- zmmmmm 3y agoAn awful lot of pre-packaged meals designed to be heated in the microwave come in (and sometimes, be eaten from) plastic trays. They couldn't really come another way. You can say people shouldn't use those but if that is their lifestyle beacause they don't have time to prepare meals then you lost the "insanely easy" argument.
- BugsJustFindMe 3y agoWhat about splatter guards which are almost universally made from plastic? Or glass containers with plastic lids? Microwaving food splatters the shit out of the walls and ceiling of the microwave. Is the problem any plastic in the microwave or just the plastic that touches the food?
- jbotz 3y agoYeah, I wondered about that, too... the article specifically mentions the involvement of water (hydrolysis) in the process of micropaticle formation, but the splatter guard is of course exposed to the steam coming from the food, and some of that condenses and drops back on the food, so not using these plastic splatter guards is probably indicated. Covering the container with an inverted plate (making sure to leave some space for steam pressure to exscape) is probably better. I'm going to do that from now.
- bentcorner 3y agoYou can get splatter guards that have a glass "top" and some kind of silicone edging. It seems a lot more durable than the entirely thin white plastic ones that are more common. Look for "GGG-GLOU-GLOU GOOSE" (really) on Amazon. Only downside is that the glass top can get dangerously hot, but there's a handle.
- dirtyid 3y agoAs someone not weary of using plastic in microwave, for some reason I am very distrustful of silicon used in cookwear, especially equipment that interacts directly touches hot metal like lids, baking sheets etc. I don't even know the science behind it. But I've seen enough semi melted silicon spatula tips to feel like it's not a good combo.
- BugsJustFindMe 3y agoThe ones I've seen of this sort are all kinda small. And "gets dangerously hot" makes it a complete nonstarter for me.
- 3y ago
- chronicsonic 3y agoThat’s why the IKEA 365+ glass containers are the bees knees for freezing and microwaving your food.
- avar 3y agoI use these too, but as they have microwave safe plastic lids they're perhaps not the best example for those paranoid about plastic exposure: https://www.ikea.com/nl/en/p/ikea-365-food-container-with-lid-rectangular-glass-plastic-s89269071/ https://www.ikea.com/nl/en/p/ikea-365-food-container-with-li...
- tremendo 3y agoAs others mention already, the problem is the plastic, not the microwave, even the article ends with "Go with glass". There have to be many alternatives but I happened upon cookanyday and never looked back. I almost never used the microwave oven before but these make it not only convenient, I actually like the results. Well, most times. Like many products (pressure cooker, air fryer) they want you to just do _everything_ in your new toy, but everything has its sweet spot. I use all at least once every week.
- Clamchop 3y agoStartling number of people who either don't know how to or reject on principle actually cooking food (as opposed to merely reheating it) in their microwave, too. And a few classist remarks and at least one usage of "white trash".
- Doxin 3y ago> cooking food in their microwave There's only one recipe I semi-regularly use that I'd count as cooking in the microwave. The main reason being that the "classic" way of cooking it takes a whole day, where it only takes 20 minutes in the microwave.
- DangitBobby 3y agoI've legitimately never even considered there might be recipes that center around the microwave! Now that I know they exist I will definitely need to try one. Any recommendations?
- magarnicle 3y agoNot full recipes, but this is pretty informative start to the topic: https://youtu.be/dJrdXRZ3PUE?si=Bpt15EXgF9kdETSo https://youtu.be/dJrdXRZ3PUE?si=Bpt15EXgF9kdETSo
- dotancohen 3y agoIt should be noted in context that the labels and text "microwave safe" refer to the safety of the product, not the human. The label is added to products that will not melt in the microwave - there is no testing of volatiles emitted.
- albert_e 3y agoReally? "Microwave safe" container labels are not labelled so because it is safe to heat food in them in Microwaves? Why would anyone just heat empty containers in a microwave? Because that's what the label is saying otherwise isn't it?
- uoaei 3y agoAnother one to keep an eye out for: "made with 100% organic x" doesn't mean "only contains organic x" but rather "contains organic x (and also maybe other kinds of x)".
- lucb1e 3y ago"Really?" Yes "Why'd you heat empty containers?" That's not what the label suggests you do. It's like the 'dishwasher safe' label: you don't put food in your container and then stick the container in the dishwasher for heating and expect to be able to eat the food afterwards. (Would be a fun experiment, though.) "that's what the label is saying" I never took it that way, also because there is either no research on the type of plastic used and so we don't know that it's toxic yet (because which ethics committee is gonna approve a proposal to «let people eat a bunch of plastic and see what happens to them»), and if there is some amount of evidence that it has some side effects but is not precisely problematic in moderate doses, then why would a manufacturer care if they sell individual drink bottles or some such? It's not like they know that the patient, ahem, customer already got into contact with the chemical a thousand times in the past three months. (See: BPA. I just checked Wikipedia and it says that marketed-as-BPA-free products replaced it with BPF and BPS, and the sentence has references to ~recent studies that say they're equally bad or worse! The more you know about plastics...) The plausible deniability means they never had to care, so I don't expect a product labeled "microwave safe" to have invented the miracle plastic that doesn't break down into micro/nanoplastics. That would have been world news, not a footnote on an ordinary box.
- dirtyid 3y agoAre there any no plastic microwave containers that doesn't get hot?
- guender 3y ago[dead]
- aeternum 3y agoAmazon referral link to the glass containers. The real question is: how many of these articles are complete BS just to sell a product? Definitely Do Not trust what you read when there is a referral link.
- stjohnswarts 3y agoyou can find a slew of papers about not using plastic in the microwave, for a couple decades now. I mean you can believe what you want, but if you think microplastics in your food is bad then you should be able to find plenty articles in how they leach into your food, especially when they're hot.
- 93po 3y agoAgree the potential bias is unfortunate
- labster 3y agoYeah, this company does the same thing at Ars Technica, putting up long lists of Amazon affiliate links whenever it’s Prime Day.
- dunham 3y agoThey're expensive, too. At least when epicurious ran a similar article, they also recommended wide-mouth ball jars. The biggest problem for me is cabinet space. The jars don't stack compactly, and the glass lock tend to live up to their name if you try to stack them.
- mauvehaus 3y agoI once got a brandy snifter wedged into a Pyrex measuring cup (don't ask, I don't remember what I could have possibly been doing to arrange this). I filled the brandy snifter with ice, water, and salt, and dunked the outside of the measuring cup in hot water. It loosened the assembly enough to get it apart without destroying the brandy glass.
- kagakuninja 3y agoI have a set of pyrex bowls that I bought in 1987, and still use today. I wouldn't bother with wide mouth jars, although I guess they have advantages when storing food in the fridge.
- iknownothow 3y agoI've always wondered, what about tooth brushes? Don't they release microplastics too?
- titzer 3y agoToothpaste itself often contains microplastic beads that are intentionally added as scrubbing agents. It's a myth that they were phased out. More than half still contain the stuff! https://www.beatthemicrobead.org/myth-buster-toothpaste-still-contains-plastic-ingredients/ https://www.beatthemicrobead.org/myth-buster-toothpaste-stil...
- voytec 3y agoLast time I was putting plastic in a microwave was some 5-7 years ago. I went to a registered nutrition specialist with obesity and obesity-based issues. The guy had programs either providing you with diet-appropriate daily recipes, or a daily delivery of 5 dishes in plastic containers. I was too lazy at the time for the former option. But the important part is: it was all about eating 5 times a day. The label on these boxes stated that you only have to break the (plastic) seal before putting the (plastic) box in a microwave. I was doing it for a year and a half, telling myself that it's beneficial and I'm doing it to be healthy. I was _forcing_ myself to eat 5 times a day, never being hungry and never enjoying this food. And I was possibly contaminating it by heating food surrounded by plastic in the microwave. The guy was a moron, pushing his "5 dishes a day is ideal for everyone" mindset on every customer, with no regard to personal preference. I was eating 2-3 times a day before this program but I had no understanding of nutrition and was eating crap with higher amount of calories than I was burning. Eating 5 times a day during the program have not improved my health. And the food was awful. I sacrificed the pleasure of eating for some 18 months with no beneficial results. Theory: To lose weight, one needs to stay in a caloric deficit based on burning more calories than ingesting. To do it smart, one also has to understand macro-nutrients and not stuff themselves with more fat+carbs than one burns. The basics are: - proteins (amino-acids chains) are building blocks required to build/restore cells - carbs and fat are fuel that one burns for energy - carbs are burned faster than fat and if you ingest more carbs and fat than you'll burn - you'll store fat It's that simple: burn more calories than the intake and avoid more fat+carbs than you can burn to actually burn and not store additional fat. Practice: For a few years now, I'm on a 20:4 intermittent fasting schedule, which translates to calories ingestion only during a single 4-hours-long window during the day. I went back to only eating in the late afternoon. I go to the gym in the morning and stay in caloric deficit 'till the evening. I'm also on keto. The "no gainz diet" works for me personally, but is not a "golden recipe" for everyone trying to lose weight. Proper knowledge of nutrition basics is the key. And... I had to break keto once in last year. My weight went down to 56kg and body fat to 8%. Great sixpack but my face resembled meth addicts'. I've found no way to gain weight without bumping LDL cholesterol to unhealthy levels and decided to go with "very-low-carb" for 2 weeks. It worked and I'm back on keto. Happy to repeat the "very-low-carb" thing every year or half but overall - keto works well for me and keeping caloric deficit for the better part of the day reduces my hyperactivity. It's a personal preference. I make all my food from basic ingredients, avoid plastics, have no microwave and I avoid frying, apart from making omelettes or scrambled eggs. And it's rather rare despite my daily 3-6 eggs intake. I'm happy with the choices I made. Organic food (from veggies to organic-fed meat), daily gym and 10+km walk, no plastics involved apart from meat containers just for transport and overall understanding of what I'm doing to my body. And it's all about personal preference: I know people on keto for whom eating early in the day works best, while I avoid any calories in the morning, apart from the fat in vitamin D3 softgel capsule.
- fabii 3y agoSeems like it is related to this: Study finds billions of nanoplastics released when microwaving containers (unl.edu) = https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36809565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36809565
- ZoomerCretin 3y agoWhat an odd time to be alive. We've eliminated most of the obvious and immediate causes of death, and are left with health warnings for actions that are increasingly difficult to correlate with harms.
- qingcharles 3y agoMost jails and prisons only have plastic containers for microwaving your food, because anything else would be a "security risk." When I was inside the only "cup" you could buy was a plastic storage container that was not food- or microwave-safe but was used for everything from drinking coffee to cooking noodles.
- boringuser2 3y ago[flagged]
- Tostino 3y agoMaybe you should try looking at them as people?
- boringuser2 3y agoMy empathy is reserved for appropriate subjects.
- BigFnTelly 3y agowhat security risk would a polystyrene cup pose, a choking hazard?
- p1mrx 3y agopolystyrene is a plastic.
- randerson 3y agoGiven that the problem is not the microwave, but the combination of plastic and heat, this may also affect sous vide cooking. I wonder if there’s a specific temperature at which the plastic breaks down and if sous vide can stay beneath that?
- FooBarWidget 3y agoI'm on a quest to reduce microplastic ingestion but it's really hard. All the easy choices don't help at all. In Netherlands we have the world's cleanest tap water, but my wife can't stand the tap water here, even getting stomach problems if she drinks it. So instead she drinks a particular brand of bottled water. However bottled water is apparently full of microplastics. Not only leeched from the bottle, vut also from the cap when you open it. There doesn't seem to be a product on the Dutch market for removing microplastics from water. The best thing I've found is Brita filters. They don't advertise filtering out microplastics but it's plausible that they filter at least some. So now we drinked Brita filtered tap water. The baby bottles are all plastic. Glass is available but they're hard to find, and our baby only likes one particular brand of bottle, refusing to drink from others. My son's children's water bottle is plastic. I've never seen children's water bottle not made of plastic. Frankly I'm not sure what to do here. Even if I find a glass version, it's heavy. And if he drops it then it becomes a big mess — especially when he does so at school. I'm going to replace all the food containers with metal or glass soon. I also want to replace the sun-blocking curtains but it's really hard to find sun-blocking ones that don't contain nylon. It's madness.
- avar 3y ago> Netherlands we have the world's cleanest tap water. Eh? Dutch tap water is fine, but do you have a citation for that? Also note that "clean tap water" is a bit of a fuzzy non-metric. I live in Amsterdam[1], where the pH of water is around 7.8, but H^2O would be 7.0. So the water can be trivially he demonstrated not to be "clean", otherwise the pH value wouldn't differ. But of course what people usually mean is "has bad stuff in it", not how far it is from being chemically pure. > my wife can't stand the tap water here. Yeah, I also don't like it. I grew up in Iceland, which has particularly "dirty" water, but it's the "good" sort of "dirty", i.e. minerals and the like. That and other things contribute to taste, also temperature, Dutch tap water is too warm for my tastes. I'm not right, nether are you or her. It's just an acquired taste. > The baby bottles are all plastic. Glass is available but they're hard to find They're quite easy to find? Search for "glazen zuigfles". But... > our baby only likes one particular brand of bottle, refusing to drink from others. ...ah, that might be, i.e. perhaps it's just that manufacturer. Also are you looking for 100% glass? Usually the fitting to close it and the "nipple" itself are plastic/rubber. > My son's children's water bottle is plastic. I've never seen children's water bottle not made of plastic. Frankly I'm not sure what to do here. Get him a stainless steel water bottle, my kids have that (I'm not paranoid about plastic, but it's a more durable bottle for school). Blokker, IKEA etc. sell these. > I'm going to replace all the food containers with metal or glass soon[...] Respectfully, I think you're going a bit off the rails here, there's probably 10 much easier things you can do to marginally move the needle further on your family's mortality, e.g. applying sunscreen consistently. But just to feed your paranoia a bit: some things that are "metal" are really just epoxy, e.g. aluminum cans are just epoxy "bags" surrounded by aluminum walls. Food grade stainless steel is almost always "pure" though. 1. https://www.waternet.nl/service-en-contact/drinkwater/waterhardheid/ https://www.waternet.nl/service-en-contact/drinkwater/waterh...
- jschveibinz 3y agoLook for “microwave safe” label from major providers, e.g. Glad.
- IshKebab 3y ago> Definitely Do Not Put Plastic in the Microwave ... > The health impacts of eating plastic is still unclear Huh ok then.
- pipeline_peak 3y agoYou don’t know what you don’t know
- rasengan0 3y agoFrom cradle to grave, plastic everywhere: :-\ - Food supply and packaging: eat un-packaged, unprocessed food, leftovers in ceramic, glass, and metal - Clothing: use cotton, hemp, wool - Medical (PPE, masks, Covid/Flu vaccine syringe, IV administration set): stay healthy I remember the old days of tin canned soup and TV dinners in metal foil trays.
- exabrial 3y agoYou’ll live. Don’t worry.
- mvdtnz 3y ago> Within three minutes, some containers released as many as 4.22 million microplastics (particles smaller than 5 millimeters) Is this an error in the article? I always assumed "microplastics" would be much too small to see. 5 millimeters is about half the size of a micro SD card.
- lucb1e 3y ago<Ctrl+T>!wi microplastic<Enter> is what it took to find https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics which says the same thing. I was as surprised as you are, though
- KirillPanov 3y ago"science oven" Please use the correct terminology.
- fulafel 3y agoAnyone have a working (non paywalled) link to the source behind the "findings" link?
- sizzle 3y agoHow do you test if your glassware has lead in it?
- anon373839 3y agoDon’t microwaves have a plastic ring underneath the turntable?