Ja Rule's Cookbook: Will The Rapper's Microwave Prison Recipes Be Safe?
After serving two years in jail, rapper Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, has come away with some life lessons as well as some goals. Among those goals, Atkins hopes to publish his very own cookbook that focuses on ways to make microwaveable food more palatable. His top recipes include lasagna and cheesecake.
Atkins made an unexpected appearance on Geoffrey Zakarian’s Sirius XM radio show “Food Talk,” where he discussed his culinary innovations. While he does admit that the food served to him in prison was less than favorable, he did pack on an extra 30 lbs. that he attributes to his microwaveable cooking methods.
“In jail, they're pretty crafty,” Atkins told TMZ. “We made lasagna, we made cheesecakes, we had lots of things. I really didn't eat prison food. I didn't go to the chow line too much. We usually just cooked in our dorm. Yeah, yeah, we cooked our own stuff. So what we made was pretty decent. It wasn't bad."
Even though Atkins’ microwaveable recipes helped him get through his two years as a federal inmate, you may want to consider a more practical way to heat your food. Health care professionals warn against the possible health implications involved with using a microwave to cook food. People who use microwaves should refrain from using them in conjunction with plastic cooking or eating utensils to cut down on BPA exposure.
BPA, or bisphenol A, is an industrial chemical found in polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resin that could be toxic if ingested. Research presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s conference in Boston linked BPA exposure to a pregnant woman’s miscarriage. Lead researcher Dr. Ruth Lathie suggests that men and women who are trying to conceive should avoid microwaving food in plastic containers to cut down on BPA exposure.