From the April 2008 Idaho Observer:

Throughout the ages there has always been a natural need to make things a little easier. From as far back as first having a fire to warm us, we learned to contain it in stones that radiated the heat leading to what most of us love and still call "The Fire Place."

Then, when workable metal came into existence (a very convenient invention in itself) we learned to fashion wood burning stoves. Heating with metal stoves was becoming a modern convenience and soon it was in almost all homes.The old saying always held true, "Necessity is the mother of invention." This concept was healthy, inspiring, good for the economy and led to so many great things. (The industrial age of the 1890s to around 1950 was absolutely amazing!)

The basic necessities of life were always transportation, heating and cooling, storing food and water, and shelter from the weather. When we see such fine examples as automobiles, central heating and cooling, modern refrigerators, modern plumbing, and the beautiful and comfortable homes of today, it’s easy to say, "Convenience is not a curse at all but a blessing"—and we would be right.

It is fairly safe to say that today the necessities of life are well covered to where we can grasp any of them with ease. However, there is quite a difference between something that makes a necessity more convenient and something that makes the convenience itself, such as the ease of preparing a meal on a nice modern stove, become unnecessary.

How lazy are we going to allow ourselves to get? Or even worse, how much of this wonderful life that we were created to enjoy (which includes using our brain and muscles once in a while) are we willing and wanting to give up?

If this is not self-destruction, I don’t know what is. We are trapped in a whirlwind moving faster and faster away from the life our bodies, souls and spirits were created to live and the average person can’t even see it!

Well, on that moment of hope and delight in humanity, my wife just told me about a TV survey that she saw on "Good Morning America": When asked what was most important in deciding "what to do for dinner" such as price, taste, nutrition, or convenience, an overwhelming 70 percent said convenience. The survey did not say but I suspect to most people that means popped in the microwave or a trip through a fast food place.

Now surely popping something in the microwave at home couldn’t hurt you even if there was no nutrition left in it, right? Wouldn’t they warn us or ban microwave ovens if eating food cooked in them was a major health threat? Well, the data may shock you but here are the facts...This data has confirmed just about all my suspicions. I believe that the general obesity in this country, the lack of energy and increased cancer along with all the new "designer diseases" i.e. erectile dysfunction etc. can be traced in part to our habit of using microwave ovens as the "lazy man’s way out of a little extra work."

It turns out it was the Nazis who actually invented these ovens. They were used in their mobile support calling them the "radiomissor." These ovens were to be used for the invasion of Russia. By using electronic equipment for preparation of meals on a mass scale, the logistical problem of cooking fuels would have been eliminated, as well as the convenience of producing edible products in a greatly reduced time-factor.

After the war, the Allies discovered medical research done by the Germans on microwave ovens. These documents, along with some working microwave ovens, were transferred to the United States War Department and classified for reference and "further scientific investigation."

The Russians had also retrieved some microwave ovens and now have thoroughly researched their biological effects. As a result, their use was outlawed in the Soviet Union (for a year or two). The Soviets issued an international warning on the health hazards, both biological and environmental, of microwave ovens and similar frequency electronic devices.

After the war, Dr. Percy Spencer, a self-taught engineer with the Raytheon Corporation, claimed to have "invented" the microwave oven in 1946. The Raytheon Corporation did actually file the first U.S. patent on one. The first ones were called Radar Ranges in 1954. Thank You Raytheon, but I like your missiles much better!

The following is a summary of the Russian investigations published by the Atlantis Rising Educational Center in Portland, Oregon.

Carcinogens were formed in virtually all foods tested. No test food was subjected to more microwaving than necessary to accomplish the purpose, i.e., cooking, thawing, or heating to ensure sanitary ingestion.

• Microwaving prepared meats sufficiently to ensure sanitary ingestion caused formation of d-Nitrosodiethanolamines, a well-known carcinogen.

• Microwaving milk and cereal grains converted some of their amino acids into carcinogens.

• Thawing frozen fruits converted their glucoside and galactoside containing fractions into carcinogenic substances.

• Extremely short exposure of raw, cooked or frozen vegetables converted their plant alkaloids into carcinogens.

• Carcinogenic free radicals were formed in microwaved plants, especially root vegetables.

All microwave ovens contain a magnetron which is a tube in which electrons are affected by magnetic and electric fields. They produce micro wavelength radiation at about 2450 Mega Hertz (MHz) or 2.45 Giga Hertz (GHz). This microwave radiation interacts with the molecules in food. The wave energy inside the oven changes polarity from positive to negative with each cycle of the wave. These changes of polarity happen millions of times every second. Food molecules (especially the molecules of water) have a positive and negative end just like a magnet has a north and a south polarity.

As these microwaves generated from the magnetron bombard the food, they cause the polar molecules to rotate at the same frequency millions of times a second. This is major agitation (Much less agitation is used in pharmaceutical drug labs to separate or isolate molecules in the making of just about any thing they want). This agitation creates the molecular friction, which heats up the food.

The friction also causes substantial damage to the surrounding molecules, often tearing them apart or forcefully deforming them. The scientific name for this deformation is "structural isomerism."

In Comparative Study of Food Prepared Conventionally and in the Microwave Oven (Raum & Zelt, 1992), it states: "Production of unnatural molecules is inevitable. Naturally occurring amino acids have been observed to undergo isomeric changes (changes in shape morphing) as well as transformation into toxic forms, under the impact of microwaves produced in ovens.

"Significant increases were found in the luminescence of these bacteria when exposed to blood serum obtained after the consumption of microwaved food."

In Dr. Lita Lee’s book, Health Effects of Microwave Radiation - Microwave Ovens, and in the March and September, 1991 editions of Earthletter, she stated that every microwave oven leaks electromagnetic radiation, harms food and converts substances cooked in it to dangerous organ-toxic and carcinogenic products. Further research summarized in this article reveals that microwave ovens are far more harmful than previously imagined.

It makes absolutely no sense to me that our FDA is "looking out for us" and yet has not banned perhaps the worst cancer producing machines in history.

[Note: For a longer, more detailed article, The Hidden Hazards of Microwave Cooking, go to http://plantcures.com/microwave.html

About the author: Christopher Gussa is a certified Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner and a certified Clinical Herbalist. Chris founded Plant Cures, Inc. where they handcraft over 150 "Serious Herbal Medicine Products" for specific disorders all created as a result of successful clinical application. Their products are for both serious dis-eases and achieving powerful tonic health. Please visit Plant Cures at www.plantcures.com or call (800) 979-2027