Are microwaves making us fat?
Posted on Dec 31st 2007 10:47AM by Chris Sparling
Without getting all Freakonomics on you, I still feel strongly that statistics are sometimes a great way to make sense of this oft-confusing world of ours. Then again, as I've suggested in the past, statistics can also lead you wildly astray, making just about anything seem plausible. Nonetheless, I feel that a simple statistical analysis of microwave usage and weight gain will reveal a very interesting correlation, if not actual causality.
A day late and a dollar short as always, it seems that my theory on this relationship has already been made. Researchers from the University College London found that the obesity epidemic began at the same time that the microwave started to become a standard fixture in the American household (around the early 1980s). Being able to nuke your food made it far more convenient and required less preparation time, thereby also making it easier for us to eat until our bellies were more than content. No longer was it necessary to stand over a stove for twenty minutes to make a meal, as the microwave made it possible to create the same meal in about two minutes.
Convenience is the American ideal (hence why we're willing to pay $1.50 for a single-serving bottle of soda instead of $0.99 for a 2-liter bottle, which rids us of the incredibly arduous task of pouring into cups). It's the goal of every new product; to be easier to use and more effective than the last one. With regard to the microwave, however, it stands to reason that convenience has lead to reliance and abundance, which in turn has resulted in marked, collective weight gain.
