I have heard that microwaving can destroy certain nutrient molecules in food, such as vitamins. Is this true? — D, Boulder, CO
A microwave oven heats the food it cooks; nothing more. If it damages nutrients, then it’s by overheating those nutrients. Such overheating could happen in a microwave oven if you don’t move the food about during cooking. That’s because the microwaves aren’t uniformly distributed in the cooking chamber and some parts of the food heat faster than others. Some parts of the food could become hotter than you intend and this overheating could damage sensitive molecules. However, I think that microwave cooking is probably less injurious to the food than conventional cooking. It’s pretty hard to burn food in a microwave!