The premise of the article is a little weird. Like, nobody's suggesting you should abandon your blender or toaster or dishwasher. Why this?
A microwave is exceptionally safe, and highly efficient at heat transfer. There really is no device that can compare for its specific set of use cases. Sure, it's not so great for making toast or grilling a steak or whatever, but it's a device that serves a purpose and does it well.
Because microwaves are mostly used to reheat ready meals, not to cook from scratch. That's potentially a public[1] health problem if there's little regulation of the sugar / fat[1] / salt[1] content of those meals.
[1] Public health talks about the whole population, not just the individual. This means you look at risks across a large group of people. Some people eat fat and are fine, some people eat salt and are fine, but across the population these things are eaten too much and they cause harm.
I make soups or curries in large quantities and freeze them in single servings. When I get home from work I can serve a healthy meal I cooked in six minutes. Why would I get rid of the microwave? What’s wrong with it?
I do use the microwave for actual cooking. In particular, if you follow the keto diet, the microwave can be your best friend.
Some examples:
1. bacon: either straight on a plate, or on some paper towels to absorb the excess fat
2. eggs: I content that there is no faster way to cook eggs than with a silicone egg poacher [1] in a microwave
3. seafood stew: just put a pound of frozen seafood in a microwaveable steam bag [2], some cream and salt, and in 5 minutes you have a delicious stew
4. roasted vegetables: you do this in the oven, but before you put the vegetables in the baking tray, you steam them in a microwave using the steam bag [2] for 2-3 minutes. This reduces the cooking time from one hour minutes to 20 minutes.
It never even occurred to me to give up my microwave until a coworker recommended cooking popcorn in a pan. We have a popcorn maker which is already better than a microwave at making healthy unflavored popcorn, but the idea stuck. What else was there that I needed a microwave for? Everything else can be cooked in a pan or oven.
Heating water-rich food uniformly and gently from the inside rather than by propagating heat through the food surface, which is a rather unique property that allows specific techniques and results.
I just do that on the stove or in the oven. I haven't owned a microwave in years. However, I'm not opposed to them. They are super convenient. Way less concern for burning leftover soup in the microwave that takes half as long to reheat my soup. Lol.
A microwave is exceptionally safe, and highly efficient at heat transfer. There really is no device that can compare for its specific set of use cases. Sure, it's not so great for making toast or grilling a steak or whatever, but it's a device that serves a purpose and does it well.