# Microwaving food - can we settle this **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 23, 2013, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microwaving-food-can-we-settle-this/656483 "2013-04-23T11:16:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![colander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@colander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colander)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microwaving-food-can-we-settle-this/656483/81 "2013-04-25T22:02:14Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Yes, I can’t be bothered to look them up in the grocery store. What is so strange about that? In the time it takes for you to explain why you haven’t yet decided to learn even basic facts about the substances that are in foods that you eat every day, you probably could have gone ahead and actually looked them up. I really do recommend it! > [@](#): > > It’s not something that people would normally stock in their pantry so they give the impression that they are just hiding something. You ever hear of Red dye #4, sounds harmless enough. Jezz. By your own proud admission, you don’t even know what most common food additives are. So why are you so confident that you don’t use them in your home? ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microwaving-food-can-we-settle-this/656483/82 "2013-04-26T12:05:12Z")
> [@colander](#): > > By your own proud admission, you don’t even know what most common food additives are. So why are you so confident that you don’t use them in your home? No, you keep making accusations that are unfounded. I do not have a problem with the food additives, I have a problem with certain people who argue that mustard and corn start are additive while ignoring things like chlorine and inosinates (flavor enhancers). Look through [this list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_number) and tell me in layman’s terms why I would want my food treated with the emulsifier Polyethylene glycol, which appears to be a laxative. True, emulsifiers in general are harmless but I wouldn’t call them point to mustard and corn starch and ignore MSG in my argument such as you have done. As I said before, you are off topic and now only baiting. Start your own thread because I’m out of this one. ---
**Author:** ![colander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@colander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colander)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microwaving-food-can-we-settle-this/656483/83 "2013-04-26T23:47:36Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > No, you keep making accusations that are unfounded. I do not have a problem with the food additives, I have a problem with certain people who argue that mustard and corn start are additive while ignoring things like chlorine and inosinates (flavor enhancers). Inosinates? Oooh, sounds scary! Let’s look up what that is! > [@](#): > > Inosinic acid or inosine monophosphate (IMP) is a nucleoside monophosphate. Inosinic acid is important in metabolism. It is the ribonucleotide of hypoxanthine and the first nucleotide formed during the synthesis of purine. It is formed by the deamination of adenosine monophosphate, and is hydrolysed from inosine. IMP is an intermediate ribonucleoside monophosphate in purine metabolism. > > Important derivatives of inosinic acid include purine nucleotides found in nucleic acids and adenosine triphosphate, which is used to store chemical energy in muscle and other tissues. OH MY GOD THEY’RE INSIDE YOU RIGHT NOW AND **IT’S ALREADY TOO LATE** > [@](#): > > Look through [this list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_number) and tell me in layman’s terms why I would want my food treated with the emulsifier Polyethylene glycol, which appears to be a laxative. Because it improves the texture of the food when present in concentrations that pose no credible danger of harm. A lot of things are laxatives when ingested in significant bulk. Dietary fiber and vegetable oil, for instance. Perhaps you’ve heard of them? > [@](#): > > True, emulsifiers in general are harmless but I wouldn’t call them point to mustard and corn starch and ignore MSG in my argument such as you have done. That’s kind of a weird argument you say you’ve been making, since MSG isn’t an emulsifier. Also, remind me what your problem with it is again? > [@](#): > > As I said before, you are off topic and now only baiting. Start your own thread because I’m out of this one. I’m not baiting. Just educating. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microwaving-food-can-we-settle-this/656483/84 "2013-04-27T01:41:37Z")
(Another vote for MSG. OK, you win, papain sounds healthier.) ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microwaving-food-can-we-settle-this/656483/85 "2013-04-27T02:28:27Z")
> [@colander](#): > > That’s kind of a weird argument you say you’ve been making, since MSG isn’t an emulsifier. Also, remind me what your problem with it is again? The oddest thing is that MSG isn’t mentioned AT ALL until Si Amigo’s post #82; I did a “Find” for MSG and glutamate just to make sure. To people who freak out over MSG, glutamate is a naturally occurring amino acid; the only difference is that it normally occurs as part of a protein - in ANY protein-containing food, and in amounts far higher than used as MSG (just look at the eye-popping numbers listed [here](http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000093000000000000000.html)). Also, while some claim that it is toxic because it is free, not part of a protein, your body normally never absorbs intact proteins - they are broken down before being absorbed, so the free glutamate in MSG will be treated in the same way as glutamate from digested protein (the same argument applies to aspartame, although [phenylalanine is toxic to certain people](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylketonuria) - but again, it occurs in vastly higher amounts in whole foods; for example, artificially sweetened yogurt will have far more phenylalanine in the yogurt itself, rendering the “contains phenylalanine” warning for aspartame silly). As for microwavable food in general, whether it is healthy or not is like saying any other prepared food is (un)healthy; there is nothing different that I can see from other said foods, other than that manufacturers are paid by doctors to put tons of sodium (in particular) in them (well, not really, but it seems like it, blood pressure medications being best sellers and all). Some of the posts here make it sound like instead of using wheat flour, they use a mixture of chemicals that simulate wheat flour, and so on (that said, any enriched wheat flour will have a long list of chemicals which are added nutrients; you’d think they would use the common names instead, like Vitamin B1 instead of thiamine mononitrate). Of course, you definitely want to avoid anything with stuff like [partially hydrogenated vegetable oil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat) (especially if trans fat is not 0 grams, not that that means it doesn’t have any) and [sodium nitrite](http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20100517/processed-meat-linked-to-heart-disease-risks) (used in processed meat, which significantly increases CVD risk). ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microwaving-food-can-we-settle-this/656483/86 "2013-04-27T03:06:16Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > (Another vote for MSG. OK, you win, papain sounds healthier.) Well, they’re not the same thing. Papain is meat tenderizer. Comes (at least originally) from unripe papayas. You can actually use unripe papayas to tenderize meat just as well (plus there’s other fruits that work, too.) I actually have a spice container labeled “MSG.” Used to buy Accent for 4 bucks a pop before I realized the cheapie spice section had twice as much for 99 cents labeled as MSG. I use it like any other ingredient. I don’t put it in most things I cook, but a little bit in soups and stews works well. Then again, I also use sodium nitrite and nitrate for certain dried preserved meats that I make once in a blue moon, as it’s better than botulism. (Or you could salt the hell out of the meat. The nitrited/nitrated stuff is plenty salty as it is, though.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microwaving-food-can-we-settle-this/656483.md?page=4)