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Practical and clinical nutritional concerns during spaceflightExperience with space exploration to date has raised more questions regarding nutritional requirements for astronauts than it has answered. As mission lengths continue to increase, nutrient imbalances due to alterations in intake, dietary requirements, bioavailability, or excretion, may become more important. Factors adversely affecting intake include those as straightforward as stress and as complex as space-adaptation syndrome. Metabolic alterations induced by shifts in fluid and electrolyte balance, neuroendocrine function, and changes in hepatic protein synthesis and skeletal muscle type that result in nutrient partitioning to different biochemical pathways may also affect dietary requirements. Food processing effects on nutrient stability and digestibility, which apply to limited quantities of our usual diet on Earth, may become more important for diets that contain little fresh food during extended-length missions. Whereas nutrient and water recycling through ecosystems is taken for granted on Earth, specific effects of trace contaminant accumulation will require greater attention for prolonged space flights. Human factors, esthetics, and user-friendly operations will be necessary to facilitate the psychological as well as physiological health of the astronauts.
Document ID
20040189025
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Seddon, M. R.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX United States)
Fettman, M. J.
Phillips, R. W.
Date Acquired
August 22, 2013
Publication Date
November 1, 1994
Publication Information
Publication: The American journal of clinical nutrition
Volume: 60
Issue: 5
ISSN: 0002-9165
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Review, Tutorial
Review

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