Microwave technology is distinctly different from the conventional heat treatment that we have had over the ages. The microwave oven emits energy that converts the water and similar liquid elements into heat energy that could raise the heat in order to cook the food. The heat thus created astonishingly reduces the cooking time.
The taste appears similar therefore; the ingredients might supposedly be of similar nutritional value. There have been a lot of arguments and counter arguments on this matter, however, the positive side of the matter is that it saves time. Some experts however, question the nutritional value of food cooked in this manner.
Ayurveda perspective
Every transformation in the universe occurs with the involvement of heat and of time. A fruit ripens as the effect of the right amount of heat and time. Eggs hatch when they are warmed under the wings of the parents after a certain period of time. Food gets well cooked, quite naturally, when the heat provided to cook food and the time given to complete the cooking is just right. In spite of the advancement of technology, nobody has brought a normal human baby out in 3 months or 5 months of gestation instead of the 9 months that we conventionally know. This is the importance of the element called kal or time.
The heat consists of 2 gunas that are necessary to undergo the transformation; the ooshna and the teekshna guna of the heat element or tej mahabhoot. The ooshna guna is the sheer heat of the tej mahabhoot. The teekshna guna is the sharpness of the tej mahabhoot. Like a sharp knife, it penetrates deeper into the realms of the food, guiding the ooshna or the heat to go deeper in order to bring about the necessary transformation of cooking.
When the food is cooked in the conventional way, either under firewood or gas, it has restrained levels of the ooshna and teekshna gunas. When the heat is of similar temperature (ooshna), the speed of cooking largely depends on the teekshna guna. If the vessel has a thin bottom, the cooking gets done earlier than a thick bottom, since the heat permeates the thin bottom faster. Roasting food in the open in cold winters take longer than in summers due to variations in the ooshna and teekshna of the teja, proportionately reduced by the sheeta or the cold.
Therefore, to summarize, well cooked food requires the right blend of time or kal, and ooshna and teekshna guna of the teja mahabhoot.
Microwave oven is all about teekshna guna. It has been cautioned to be hazardous to health like x rays, if exposed by modern day scientists. Therefore, food cooked under such conditions would likely have high amount of pitta content and the sanskara of time taken for cooking food is shortened, thereby compromised. Therefore, gentle transformation of cooking is replaced by invasive fast acting microwave technology. Therefore, such food is ill advised for continuous consumption as a nutrient food. The rising pitta that comes across microwave food is a matter of study which has been taken up by researchers for its long term effects on health. Going by our logic, the ill effects are almost certain.
The ill effects of many of the facilities that we have started to use as mainstream modernization techniques over the years, may not be visible today or even perhaps in this generation, but drifting away from the natural ways of coexistence would definitely mean we pay its price sometime in the future, on the health, quality of life and nature of diseases.
* This is the Doctor’s interpretation of the Ayurvedic Texts based on his experience of over 32 years, and that there can be further discussion on the issue.
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