Microwave Meals VS Home Cooking

[Alistair Kershaw]

When it comes to microwave meals, I've always been curious to how the quality of the contents compare to freshly cooking the meal yourself. For example if you get a "healthy" microwave meal consisting of lets say, brown rice, chicken breast and broccoli. how much different would it be nutrition wise compared to buying the items separately and cooking it at home. Obviously the taste and texture if far different after it's been frozen and microwaved compared to fresh but i'm curious purely on the nutritional value of the meal. Assuming the company making the meals uses high quality ingredients to begin with, would it have the same nutritional value? or is the assumption they're using high quality ingredients unreasonable? Or does microwaving anything just destroy the meal regardless of how well it's prepared?

I've been taking microwave meals to work lately because it's super convenient and the contents of the meal seem to be healthier than anything i'd normally cook. I'm curious what you guys think, thanks

[Michael569]

3 hours ago, Alistair Kershaw said:

For example if you get a "healthy" microwave meal consisting of lets say, brown rice, chicken breast and broccoli. how much different would it be nutrition wise compared to buying the items separately and cooking it at home.

While certain alterations to some water-soluble nutrients such as niacin, vitamin  C and other chain-breaking antioxidants may help, generally cooking does not destroy as much nutritional value as is often assumed. That is moderate cooking. If you grill the heck out of the chicken or fry the heck out of that broccoli, you may lose more. Microwaving is totally safe and we do not have any reliable data that would show microwaving any food is harmful or bad or exposes you to radiation. How much that food has spent on the shelf is also important thou. Ageing vegetables and fruits  do lose some antioxidants naturally. 

3 hours ago, Alistair Kershaw said:

ssuming the company making the meals uses high quality ingredients to begin with, would it have the same nutritional value?

That's impossible to tell without fully knowing everything about their logistic and the entire supply chain. How much time has elapsed between that broccoli being picked and it landing on your plate would be the major determinant as well as what sort of heat alteration has happened in between. Sometimes companies use synthetic ingredients to protect shelf life, that's a factor as well. 

 

I'm gonna jump in conclusions and assume your question was "is microwaving safe and does it destroy my food? " The answer is yes it is safe, it does not destroy your food and it is a perfect warming option for busy people who have no other means of eating warm meal. Don't worry about it

 

3 hours ago, Alistair Kershaw said:

or is the assumption they're using high quality ingredients unreasonable?

sometimes ..... many marketing words, unless they are protected by law literally mean nothing. A word "fresh" or "natural" is as meaningless as can be these days. Other words such as "organic" are more likely to be relevant as there are more rigorous testing protocols.