Answer:
During the last ten years microwave ovens have been increasingly used to cook/prepare foods, not just reheat leftovers. Some people use a microwave for every meal and snack prepared! In 1976 the Russians banned microwaves following a Swiss study that showed the damaging effects of cooking in a microwave oven. The Swiss researchers were “found guilty of interfering with commerce” and fined, until the European Court of Human Rights overturned the lawsuit when it was discovered that the Swiss Association of Dealers for Electroapparatuses for Households and Industry had unfair influence over the Swiss court.
Dr. Hans Hertels research was a excellent well-designed nutrition study. He discovered that blood samples revealed decreased hemoglobin levels and increased white blood cell levels following microwaved food consumption. Microwaves altered the protein molecules in foods and LDL cholesterol increased.
Microwaving breast milk for a midnight feeding is NOT recommended. Immunoglobulins in breast milk are destroyed according to another study. A 2003 study in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture revealed that microwaved broccoli lost over 75% of three antioxidant compounds studied (97% of the flavonoids). Steamed broccoli only lost 5 % of the same antioxidants.